A Hero's Welcome to Valoran
by Knight in Blackest Armor
Summary: A small flotilla of vessels commanded by the venerable Grand Admiral Kunkka was sent to investigate and try to deal with the anomalous activities occurring in a neighboring set of islands. Little did the grand admiral know that this very important assignment will place him and his Radiant comrades into world-changing positions in Valoran. Updates intermittently.
1. Old Friend in Need

Seeing that there's virtually nothing in the Dota 2/League of Legends crossover department, except for the recent Peril by Culling Blade, I decided to put down my two cents. You can be rest assured that this story will not be abandoned (if it receives enough support), but updates will (might) be slow.

Anyways, enjoy! I certainly hope you like my choice of Heroes.

* * *

Purist Thunderwrath, the Omniknight, clutched a magically sealed parchment with a gauntleted hand. It was emblazoned with the royal seal of the Claddish Kingdom on the front, and appeared to be quite utilitarian in appearance, which is unusual for something coming from royalty. Further inspection revealed that the parchment had also taken water damage.

"A parrot going by the name of 'Lieutenant Squawkins' delivered that to us, a few weeks ago. You were on a crusade near the Font of Avernus then." Elder Hierophant Wikus told Thunderwrath. The elderly man had the voice that rang like the sagely, wizened words of an ancient being that's seen everything the world has to offer.

_Much like Ezalor,_ Thunderwrath pondered. "If this came from Cladd, then I'm taking a guess that a certain admiral is involved in this."

Wikus nodded slowly. "The bird dropped the name 'Cornelius' before fluttering away. This admiral is a friend of yours, yes?"

"He is an ally," Thunderwrath replied. "We fought side-by-side with a few others of my kind, as you might recall."

The look of recognition crossed the elder hierophant's features. "Ah, yes. The Heroes. If that's the case, I'd open that as fast as I can. Your friend might be in need of a knight of the Omniscient One's assistance."

Without further ado, Thunderwrath unsealed the parchment with a simple purification spell. The seal came off rather quickly, and he immediately read the contents of his message, eager to see how his old friend is doing.

_Addressed to Purist Thunderwrath of the Knights of the Omniscient Order – The Omniknight,_

_Purist, if you recognize Cladd's royal seal, then you probably know who wrote this letter, and what it entails. I have been commissioned by King Frederick XIV to investigate an anomaly that's predicted by the Claddish Royal Mages to occur in the Rishi Islands, just a few hundred kilometers to the south of the Trembling Isles. As of now, the mages anticipate that if this anomalous activity did not get properly dealt with, it's eventually going to spread to the Trembling Isles in a matter of weeks. Millions of my countrymen are in danger because of this. Knowing you, your order might be interested in sending you off to accompany me and a small flotilla to investigate the islands together with me and a few of our old Radiant comrades. With enough luck, this should be just a false alarm, and I'd be owing you a lot more than just three of my lives._

_If you decide to come, head over to Port Darlanad, near the Shadeshore Ruins. We'll spend several days on my ship, the _Mighty Leviathan_, as we cross the Velondr Sea. Careful out there on your crusades, _

_From Grand Admiral Kunkka, of the New Claddish Armada_

With a sigh, Thunderwrath placed the letter on a nearby table. He turned to Wikus, "Elder, a whole kingdom's worth of lives are in grave danger. I might be gone in a few months, but Knight Commander Locke should take proper care of our men while I'm gone."

Wikus smiled. "Go then, we'll fare well here. Even a single life in need is enough for me."

The Omniknight nodded gratefully and left.

…

_Addressed to Princess Mirana of the Nightsilver Woods – The Princess of the Moon,_

_Your Royal Highness, this is a time of great distress for my nation of Cladd. A mysterious anomaly is predicted by the king's Royal Mages to come about in the Rishi Islands, which is in very close proximity to Cladd's capital of Wellington. They also think that if this anomalous activity didn't get disposed of in time, the Trembling Isles will be the new site of this crisis in the time of three weeks, at the very least. The lives of my countrymen and the land of my ancestors are in grave danger of being taken away by this force. King Frederick XIV has told me to write this letter to request Your Royal Highness' presence in dealing with this threat, as repayment for our assistance in repelling the Centaur invasion of Nightsilver sixteen months ago. _

_If Her Royal Highness wishes to provide her assistance in this matter, then Port Darlanad, near the ruins of Shadeshore, is our place of meeting and departure. _

_Sent by Grand Admiral Kunkka, of the New Claddish Armada_

Her instincts told her that something is off with Kunkka's letter. Mirana took the parchment from her desk and exposed it to the moon's rays. Instantly, a concealed message was found, carefully inscribed with a runic artificer's pen. The princess smiled, her old friend is still skilled with hiding notes from the naked eye.

_Excuse my flowery prose, Mirana. I know how you dislike overly prevalent formalities and such. The king's guards are supervising me right now. Thankfully, they don't know how I write messages like this. If you decide to come, then I think it's fair that I warn you: you _will_ spend a moderate amount of days on my flagship, the _Mighty Leviathan_. I know this is a hard request to heed, but your skills with a mounted bow would be pretty damned useful if my flotilla encounters any sort of hostile force, and I have a bad feeling that we'd eventually do._

_If you decide not to come, then I harbor no ill will towards you. As of the time of this letter's writing, I've already sent forty-seven letters to our old Radiant comrades-in-arms, and with how everyone's busy trying to find a new purpose in life with the Dire Ancient's defeat, I doubt a lot of people will heed me… but I understand._

Mirana found herself at a crossroads. On one hand, she was eager to immediately take up Kunkka's offer of repaying the Nightsilver Woods' debt to the Claddish Kingdom with her services as a warrior-princess, and not to mention that she was enthusiastic about the prospect of assisting an old ally of hers during her tenure with the Radiant Ancient.

But on the other hand, the Temple of Selemene is in a bad shape; the Centaur attack on Nightsilver had left several of its infrastructures heavily damaged, and Mirana needed to stay in the Temple to oversee the reconstruction of her lands. But on a more serious (to Mirana) note is a fact that not many people know: the Princess of the Moon is terrified by the prospect of staying on a ship at sea. Kunkka had once thrown a celebratory cruise of the Trembling Isles after the Dire Ancient's assumed destruction, with all the Heroes he could send letters to being invited. Many came, and that included the princess herself.

It was one of the few decisions she had come to regret, as she spent nearly the entire cruise either in her quarters, or over at one side of the ship, doing what most people usually do when they're uncontrollably seasick, much to her humiliation. Mirana's fellow Heroes thought it was beyond hilarious – seeing the normally regal and majestic Princess of the Moon struck by a severe case of nausea. Never in her years had she expected herself to be horror-struck by the mere presence of the rolling seas – the thought of it made the princess feel light-headed and unwell.

"Your highness, you look unwell." Mirana turned her gaze from Kunkka's letter to the Dark Moon warrior standing at her doorway. "Is there something wrong?"

Mirana shook her head. "No, no. I'm fine, Luna. Just remembering a certain voyage to the Trembling Isles."

Luna, the Moon Rider, smiled at the memory. "Ah yes, that. Rubick hasn't gotten over it yet, as I recall. Your face just seemed to take the color of his robes."

The princess frowned, setting the letter aside. "Everything is always funny to that twitchy, staff-twirling lunatic. I don't know how you managed to stay composed, I could barely step outside my quarters to feed myself without—"

It was then that an idea materialized inside Mirana's head. She reformed herself rather quickly and looked her lieutenant in the eyes. "Luna, how would _you_ like to go on a voyage?"

Seeing the mischievous glint in her superior's eyes, Luna braced herself for another of her 'brilliant' ideas. "I'd dread the thought of leaving Nightsilver, but I'll do as you wish, your highness."

"Also, I think there'd be blood to be spilt in the name of Selemene… Kunkka wrote so." Mirana continued, barely keeping a straight face.

That caught Luna's attention. "Say no more, then."

…

"And this, is for you." The bespectacled human handed Boush a parchment. "It's from a courier from Cladd. I found his remains being looted by bandits. I drove them off and took his letters."

Boush smiled and nodded. "My thanks. Not many people would gladly finish a dead courier's last delivery run."

The human shrugged. "It's all in a day's work for me. If you don't mind, I'll deliver the rest of his letters now." He turned on his heel and left the Tinker's laboratory.

The Keenish scientist turned the pipe on his mouth to another side before unsealing the parchment with a small beam of concentrated light from the defensive weapons platform he usually had strapped to the back of his hazard suit. It took him several seconds to break through the sealing runes. With a sigh, Boush scanned the letter.

_Addressed to Boush of the Violet Plateau – The Tinker_

_Old friend, I have some great news in store for you. I know how much you like studying anomalous activities, and how the unknown fields seemed to be like home to you. Well, a few days ago, King Frederick placed me in charge of a small flotilla and commissioned me to carry out an investigation of the mysterious happenings in the neighboring Rishi Islands. I know how you despise magic-wielders, but the king's own Royal Mages have made a prediction that if this anomaly isn't dealt with in the next few weeks, it'll start to advance all the way to the Trembling Isles. We don't exactly know what'll happen then, but if that scenario does occur, I'm guessing it wouldn't bode well for everybody in Cladd. _

_If you'd like to attend, then you can find the flotilla in Port Darlanad, north of Shadeshore. Find Feodor Volkov. _

_From Grand Admiral Kunkka, of the New Claddish Armada_

"Oh, an unstudied anomaly!" Boush happily exclaimed. _And just in time, too. I'm getting rather restless in this empty laboratory with nothing to do. _

Setting the Claddish letter down, the Tinker strode off his laboratory to ask permission from the Keenfolk leader for permission to undergo an expedition to the Shadeshore ruins.

…

"_We have a task for you, young one." _A whispered, distorted version of a woman's voice echoed through her mind.

In an instant, Lanaya's eyes snapped open and her body was already on high alert, startling a nearby disciple of hers. _What would the Hidden Ones ask of me today?_ She thought.

"_We have discovered a tear within the fabrics of reality across the Velondr Sea, to the northwest of the temple. It has not materialized as of yet, but we predict that it will make an appearance in three weeks and five days. We have come with the decision to send you off on a journey – to make an observation of this phenomena and to report your findings to us."_

_As the Hidden Conclave wish it, it shall be done,_ Lanaya thought, full of resolve. _But may I ask, how am I supposed to cross the Velondr Sea? My contacts don't include shipmasters and boat captains._

"_Alas, that is a question you will have to find out for yourself, young one. As powerful as the Conclave would be, we are not omniscient. But fear not. You have proven yourself as a very resourceful agent thus far. We are assured that you will find a path. Our blessings depart with you."_

And with that, the voice departed from Lanaya's mind like a soul gently leaving a body behind. She immediately started to formulate plans on crossing several thousand kilometers of open sea, when a colorful, unusually large parrot landed on her window.

_So much for the Hidden Temple being 'hidden',_ Lanaya derisively thought. Of course, birds regularly visited the Hidden Temple, but they often never returned after finding nothing of value to prolong their stay. However, unlike other birds, this parrot is a regular customer to Lanaya's window. For some reason, it chose the Templar Assassin's window as a habitat of sorts, frequently staying for several days before abruptly disappearing. Since the parrot appears to be quite docile, Lanaya and her disciples preferred to keep the bird to itself.

Today, however, the parrot appears to be outfitted in little pieces of metal, cloth and wood, which looked suspiciously like some sort of uniform designed for parrots. Furthermore, it also looked quite fatigued from excessive flying. Closer inspection from Lanaya revealed that the bird is also wearing a little collar around its neck, and by looking a little bit further into the collar, a tiny, almost innocuous symbol could be found: two sabers crossed over an cruising ship-of-the-line – the Claddish Navy's emblem.

Normally, this revelation would cause Lanaya to fly into a rage. This parrot could be used to inform the Claddish Kingdom about the Hidden Temple's location, but ever since the bird appeared on her window several years ago, not a single curious patrol of Claddish guardsmen was ever sighted near the temple, with the closest concentration of men from Cladd being over seven thousand miles away: a peaceful town of colonists with a small compliment of soldiers for protection.

Eventually, after a few seconds of thinking of what to do with discovering the 'secret' of the parrot's true allegiance, Lanaya found the answer to her problem of sea crossing. _Of course, why didn't I not think of this before! The Claddish Navy… it's led by Admiral Kunkka._

_I could use his ship to cross the Velondr!_

Lanaya ran for the window. She disturbed the resting bird to give it affectionate pats to the head for unintentionally giving her an idea that isn't half-bad. She normally wasn't what one would call a 'people person' but she can be quite friendly with animals. That day, the Templar Assassin decided to give the bird a name: 'Brilliant Idea', which is what first came to her mind, with the second being 'Bird'.

On a side note, Lanaya was forced to acknowledge that she's not even close to being the most creative person in the world.

* * *

I don't bloody well own Dota 2, or League of Legends. They're by Valve and Riot, respectively. Oh well, people can keep dreaming.


	2. The Anomaly

…

It was now only a few hours to midnight, and yet, _The_ _Mighty Leviathan_'s crew is hard at work. Most of the men on the deck were composed of grizzled, seasoned mariners from the Kingdom of Cladd, but they were supplemented by a sizable amount of Keen – and in fact, the _Leviathan_ used to be crewed entirely with these short, stocky, bearded sailors. The combined Claddish and Keenfolk crew rushed forwards and backwards across the deck of the first-rate ship-of-the-line, attending to their duties as their admiral had sought them fit to do.

_In __Groeneveld there lived a maid,_

_Mark well what I do say!_

As they worked, despite their exhaustion from a long day's work of continuous sailing, the crew sang in cadenced synchronization in hopes of raising their battered spirits, with the added effect of speeding up their work.

_In __Groeneveld there lived a maid,_

_And she was mistress of her trade._

_I'll go no more a-roving, with you – fair maid!_

Amidst the singing, with his great, brownish-black mane that flowed backwards as if he was facing a perpetual gust, sporting a thick, truly magnificent example of a beard that only the most seasoned of seafarers could hope to attain, a man in a blue gold-trimmed greatcoat walked the deck of the ship with the confident poise he was so known for. With one hand on the neck of his tobacco pipe and the other resting on top of the pommel of his famous blade, the man waited for a 'visitor' he was warned had slipped into his ship before it left the port. Taking his position at one side of the ship's steel railing, the man observed the lesser ships in his command bob up and down the choppy seas.

After seeing enough of the sea to drive inexperienced sailors to the point of heaving the contents of their stomachs out of their mouths and into the ocean, the man leaned on the fence, deciding to watch his crew scramble about the deck while taking intermittent huffs from his pipe.

_A roving, a roving, _

_Since roving's been my ru-i-in,_

_I'll go no more a-roving, with you – fair maid._

_I asked this maid to take a walk,_

_Mark well what I do say!_

_I asked this maid to take a walk,_

_That we might have some 'private talk',_

_I'll go no more a-roving, with you – fair maid!_

The man started to slacken his posture on the railing. _Where is she?_ He asked himself, impatiently tapping on TIdebringer's pommel in a pattern that mirrored the crew's shanty. Soon, he found himself compelled to join in with his crew, as his lips started moving without his brain's consent. When they recognized his characteristically mirthful tone of voice amongst their own voices in song, the crew immediately perked up, their tiredness all but forgotten.

_A roving, a roving,_

_Since roving's been my ru-i-in,_

_I'll go no more a-roving, with you – fair maid._

_Then a great big __Veldman__ rammed my bow, _

_Mark well what I do say!_

_For a great big __Veldman__ rammed my bow,_

_And said, "Young man, this is _mijn vrouw_!"_

After a short bout of laughs, the man and his crew continued,

_I'll go no more a-roving, with you – fair maid!_

The crew burst into a subdued array of cheers, before continuing on with their work with another shanty already in the process of being sung. The man chuckled, shaking his head. Through his compassionate, whole-heartedly fair and open-minded treatment of the men under his command – whether they might be Claddsmen or Keenfolk, the crew had repaid their admiral with their friendship and unshakable loyalty, which is something that most naval commanders didn't have the luxury to possess in this day and age.

He then remembered the purpose of his nightly visit to the deck, and how it seemed that she might not even bother to show up at all like the past few days. _What exactly is she planning? _He thought. _I can't believe I have to wait every night for that woman to make an appearance._ _Really, this is getting ridiculous. _The man took one last breath from his pipe before stuffing it in his coat's breast pocket. _She'll come about sooner or later,_ he told himself. He turned to his side to leave, but when he did, he was instantly rooted to the wooden flooring he was standing on.

"I heard from my contacts that you always stir up your crew into song whenever you can. Personally, I don't see the point of it all." Her voice was cold and devoid of all emotions, like it was synthesized from a Keenish talking contraption.

The man very nearly drew his sword as a reflex action at seeing her leaning on the railing next to him, as if she had been there all the time, watching him and his crew. He noted that her signature outfit has been substituted with a hooded, fur-trimmed version that appeared quite appropriate for the colder-than-cold conditions of the Velondr Sea at this time of the year, but her inexplicably purple-hued hair is, as usual, tied up in a long 'Hidden Temple Acolyte'-style braid, which poked out of her hood. The triangular mark on her forehead is darkened by her hood, but it is still faintly visible.

"I'm not even going to ask you how'd you managed to snuck inside my ship," The man said, eyeing the assassin with his pair of slate-blue eyes. "But I'm not going to make you feel unwelcome, nonetheless. Grand Admiral Kunkka welcomes you to the _Mighty Leviathan_, Lanaya."

Kunkka performed a restrained bow, taking his tricorne from his head and putting it over his chest. He deliberately neglected to mention to Lanaya that he took the time to wait at in a position with a plain view of the first deck every night to see if she'd reveal herself. "It's my regret that we didn't meet at more…" The man inhaled a lungful of the chilly salt-sea air. "Better conditions."

"I assume that you're headed for the Rishi Islands?" Lanaya briskly asked. "Did your king send your flotilla to investigate the anomaly?"

Kunkka was shocked. "Why, yes. How did you know that?"

Much to the admiral's unsettlement, Lanaya silently refused to give him an answer to his question, merely choosing to observe him back with her own cyan pair of orbs. Soon, the crew began to notice their admiral's extra company, and had promptly scrambled for any nearby arms to protect their dear admiral from the assassin. Keenfolk drew their rather complicated-looking firearms and other intricate weaponry, while the Claddish members of the crew resorted to more conventional arms, albeit with some having anti-demon runes socketed.

"Your crew wouldn't want to get in the way, grand admiral," Lanaya finally uttered, after several of the admiral's crew had already encircled her, depriving her of all her escape routes. "I had authorization from the Hidden Ones to perform lethal actions if the need arises. Tell them to stand down."

"Err…" Kunkka was slightly taken aback by the assassin flat-out telling him to heed an order. "Crew, this is Lanaya, the Templar Assassin." The admiral tensely gestured to his old comrade-in-arms from his Radiant days with a welcoming, outstretched hand. "If my instincts are right, she will work with us from now on. There's no need to do that."

"_The_ Templar Assassin?" Kunkka's first mate and old friend, Feodor Volkov, asked in disbelief, taking a few steps towards the two former Heroes. He was just a lowly crewman back in Cladd's conflict with the Cataract Demons, but he steadily climbed the ranks after surviving the whole engagement through to the end.

Taking the admiral by the shoulder and speaking in a hushed tone, Volkov tried to talk some sense into Kunkka, making sure that the Hidden Temple assassin was out of earshot. "Let me enumerate the people you've invited for our little get-together for you: the swanky, hammer-wielding, self-righteous ass, the crazy beast-riding lass from Nightsilver, _and_ the eccentric Keen scientist with his own cannon battery strapped to his back. I thought that'd be it, _but then_ literally days later, you have _her _suddenly appearing out of thin air onboard? Now that amounts to _four _of your fellow Radiant Heroes onboard. Who's next – that half-dragon knight, or the wingless Skywrath? Or maybe the old man on the horse?"

The admiral made a nervous laugh. "First of all, Thunderwrath wouldn't be that bad if you stayed out of his way, and I'm sure Davion, Shendelzare and Ezalor would've loved to come aboard, but our mission isn't as quite important as their original tasks." Although he knew that the three Heroes would be quite busy at the moment, what with their respective missions of dragon slaying, revenge-seeking and running from the Chaos Knight "I'm actually surprised that _some_ came aboard. I was expecting to go to Rishi with just Boush, really. He can't resist the prospect of investigating an anomaly."

Kunkka turned from Volkov to his crew. "I can guarantee you with my life, that Lanaya poses neither me or any of us any sort of threat. I've already had this talk with you regarding Luna. I'd rather not go through it again."

The crew seemed satisfied enough with the admiral's assurance to warily ease their combat-ready stances back to normal. With a curt nod from Volkov, they began to disperse to return to their duties.

"Are you sure about this, sir?" The first mate asked his admiral, after all that's left were him and the two Radiant Heroes. "She looks mighty suspicious – more so than the Nightsilver lass. She might do something decidedly unladylike whenever you two are alone. Don't forget, she's called Templar _Assassin_ for a reason."

Kunkka felt the need to offer a deeper explanation of his history with the Templar Assassin to Volkov, to make him feel more at ease with his old allies. But before he could so much as open his mouth, Lanaya beat him to it.

"We're wasting time," She tersely answered for Kunkka. She turned her head to regard the admiral with narrowed eyes. "The event is nearly upon us. Lead me to…" She paused, seeming reluctant to utter her next word. "Thunderwrath." She finished after a barely perceptible sigh from her.

"Of course." Without much ado, the admiral smiled and shrugged at Volkov before walking towards the first flight of stairs that lead to the galley downstairs, with the assassin in tow.

…

"My disciples relayed to me that Thunderwrath would be here. Is it just him with you?"

Kunkka turned his head to Lanaya as they climbed downstairs. "No, the king hired some trained mercenaries to supplement our ranks," He slightly frowned when she seemed aloof. "Also, Mirana wanted to come aboard and see to this anomalous event for herself, but alas, her duties to her goddess prevent her from leaving her place at Selemene's temple in the Nightsilver Woods. So, in her stead, Luna rides with us."

"The bloodthirsty Dark Moon warrior does not concern me." Lanaya coldly stated, much to Kunkka's exasperation. "Is that all?"

"Well, the Keenfolk also provided me Boush's services." The admiral perked up when he saw the surprised expression that fleetingly crossed Lanaya's eyes. "A good decision, I must say. His able mind and his contraptions should serve us well."

"Indeed," Lanaya agreed, slowly and somewhat reluctantly. "But I don't think he'd like the sight of me, I was at Violet Plateau after the incident, after all."

Kunkka stopped descending the stairs, forcing Lanaya to stop as well. She looked at the admiral with an equal amount of irritation and concern. "Wait, what did you do at the Plateau, exactly?"

Lanaya frowned behind the mask that covered her mouth. "I think you already know what I'm going to say, admiral."

A tense, ten-second silence ensued as both parties glared at each other to see who breaks first. Of course, trying to outdo the infamously stoic Templar Assassin in a staring-down contest is a fool's endeavor.

"It's a secret, fair enough." Kunkka started descending down the stairs once more.

"What are you doing here, precisely?" After a moment's silence, Kunkka decided to speak up. "I didn't send you a letter because I've not a single clue as to where to send a parchment for you to find and read. You can be hard to find if you wanted to stay hidden."

Lanaya regarded her environment for a moment, as if looking for potential eavesdroppers. "The Hidden Ones caught word that the Claddish King was sending an expedition to the Rishi Islands to put a stop to anomalous activities going on in the area." She lied about how she found a way to cross the Velondr Sea to the Rishi Islands. "They sent me to… assist you, in your investigation. If they told me that both Thunderwrath and the Tinker would be here sooner, I'd have thought twice."

The admiral smirked. "Well, you're here now. The only way out of here is to kill me, wear my face and take command of the ship. After everything we've been through, I doubt you'd do that."

To his slight apprehension, Kunkka heard Lanaya laugh – and not in a good way. "I could be full of surprises."

Once the two Heroes reached the galley, Kunkka was pleased to find that it was deserted by all life besides the three figures sitting on a single table, with maps, compasses and other paraphernalia messily strewn across the table's surface. When he got closer, he noticed that there were three figures… and an oversized, armored cat.

At the center of the table is Boush, the Tinker. He seems to be currently engaged in a heated conversation with Purist Thunderwrath, the Omniknight. The bearded Keen scientist was still donning his defensive weapons platform over his shoulders, but his hazard suit has been winterized for the occasion, with its usual dull yellow paint replaced with a grayish-white.

As of the Omniknight himself, he looked more or less the same, except for the heavier plated suit of armor he wore. Kunkka noted that his beard seemed less ragged, and he also appeared well rested, as if a tremendous amount of problems have been lifted from his armored shoulders. Of course, the admiral attributed Thunderwrath's livelier appearance up to the Radiant Ancient's final victory over the Dire Ancient.

Lastly, the dreaded Luna of the Dark Moon is… sitting quietly with the two other Heroes, slowly patting her mount's head as she watched Boush and Thunderwrath talk over their objectives. Kunkka concluded that she must've threatened the crew to let Nova out of the cargo hold and into the galley, hence its deserted state. And of course, like most of the people inside the _Mighty Leviathan_, the Moon Rider's armor is lined with fur to keep herself comfortable despite the frigid conditions of her environment.

"Ah, the admiral of the fleet returns." Boush greeted. He then regarded the Templar Assassin behind the Claddish Admiral. "My optics caught sight of your invisible form right after the ship left Port Darlanad. No offense, but you are getting sloppy, Lanaya."

The assassin narrowed her eyes at the Keen scientist. "Luck must have favored you to look at the right direction at the right time, with your goggles on. My skills are just as sharp as the day the Dire fell."

"Yes, yes. Lanaya is still the most lethal of us all," Thunderwrath cut off the Tinker before he could speak. Luna snorted at his faux compliment to the Templar Assassin.

Of course, the Omniknight was not about to let the frail Keen argue with a magically empowered assassin in the confined quarters of a first-rate's galley. "Now then, we must go back to discussing matters of import. Admiral Kunkka, King Frederick commissioned you to find out what's wrong with the Rishi Islands as fast as possible. I trust that this flotilla is nearly there?"

The admiral made his trademark confident smile. "We're almost there, Purist. We'll be there in seven hours, at very the least. It is fortunate for us to have the western winds upon our sails."

Thunderwrath nodded at Kunkka, but he stayed silent for a few seconds when he noticed Lanaya staring at him. "Is there… something wrong, Lanaya?" He mustered his courage to speak in a neutral tone.

"Your Omniscience's very existence is _wrong_, Omniknight." Came Lanaya's surprisingly bitter response. Kunkka, despite himself, plunged his face into his open gloved palm, dreading what's about to happen. Boush's eyes were wide as saucers underneath his goggles, and Luna laughed out a single 'ha'. "You must feel really self-assured, that you know things that aren't meant for your close-minded order of pathetic knights to comprehend."

"Yes, I'm sure the Hidden Ones share your sentiments as well, Templar Assassin." Came Thunderwrath's surprisingly calm, yet steely response. Kunkka breathed out a sigh of relief on his palm upon knowing that at least the Omniknight is reluctant to fight, Boush's eyes got _even bigger_ upon realizing being wrong in his predictions twice in a row, and Luna huffed in derision. "The Omniscience knows all, Lanaya. But even I know not of your temple's secrets."

The atmosphere in the galley began to thicken as Thunderwrath and Lanaya glared daggers at each other – their eyes possessing a dangerous dull gleam. Kunkka knew full well of the long-standing feud between the members Knights of the Omniscient Order, which Thunderwrath belonged to, and the Servants of the Hidden Temple, an order of secretive acolytes that Lanaya was affiliated with, with the reason for this feud being that the Hidden Temple's ideologies of secrecy clashed with the Omniscient Order's worship of a god that literally knows all. The admiral resentfully prepared for the worst.

"A much as I'd like to see you two split open Kunkka's ship as you kill each other in a duel, we'd be in a much better shape if we focus on our true objectives." Luna, in a rare moment of non-combat related wisdom, stated. "The princess told me to obey Kunkka's every reasonable command. If he asked me to keep the two of you in check, I'd gladly set Nova loose upon you." For emphasis, the beast growled in agreement with her rider.

Kunkka raised a brow at Luna's words. _This night keeps getting stranger and stranger. _He smiled in appreciation at the Moon Rider. "Spoken like a true warrior of the Dark Moon." He then turned to Lanaya and Thunderwrath. "Like our good friend from Nightsilver said, the completion of our duties is paramount, and our differences must be set aside to see the end of this. Cladd, my homeland, is depending on us. There's no telling what would happen if we fail."

The Templar Assassin and the Omniknight locked each other in a glare once more before begrudgingly acquiescing to the admiral's request. Tinker, meanwhile, had been meaning to let loose something he's been trying to keep down on his chest once the two Heroes started to argue.

"Of course, n-not to offend, but your homeland's safety isn't the most important goal here,"Boush nervously said, fidgeting over a rather large piece of Keenish blueprint. Kunkka, if he was truly irked at how the Tinker just said that the lives of fifteen million of his countrymen are only second to an even bigger objective, he did not show it.

"The anomaly on the Rishi Islands isn't new to me. The build-up of magical energies," The Tinker's tone took a resentful tinge at the mention of magic. "Is very similar to the type of magic that swept the Isle of Masks beneath the Nenriki-ido Sea's waves. Overnight, the Isle disappeared, and it seems that the Rishi Islands are headed for the same sad fate."

Lanaya shook her head. "It doesn't make sense. If you already know that, then there's nothing we could do about it. The best course of action is to just return to port to avoid the magical waves about to engulf the islands."

Boush smiled. "Ah, but I was there during the Isle of Mask's disappearance. Well, I was at a scientific observation tower witnessing the isle as it was consumed by the waves, more precisely." He started to chuckle, apparently amused at something. But upon seeing that nobody shared his enthusiasm, Boush quickly deflated and went around to his story.

"I was just a youngling back then, but I'm already smart enough to produce a state-of-the-art, completely magic-free life detector. As I watched the waves gradually consume the islands from the distance, I ran a scan to see if there are still anyone alive on the isle as part of an experiment… and to sate my curiosity." The Tinker adjusted his goggles. "Surprisingly, I found that the Isle's population of seven million – animals included, had only decreased by a few hundred, which is very unusual, given the isle's fair-sized population. However, it did _increase_ by a single amount, one that appeared to be quite different from the other life forms present in the isle by ways even I can't describe."

The Tinker folded his arms around his hazard suit's chestpiece. "Before anybody asks, I'm confident that the life detector _I_ made is most likely leagues better than anything my kin had made over the years. Therefore, I came with the hypothesis that someone… or some_thing_ appeared on the Isle and conjured some sort of spell, engulfing the small landform under the waves. What we need to do is to find out who, and why. And most importantly, how did the population of the Isle remain untouched despite all the evidence to the contrary?"

"It might be the Invoker." Luna guessed.

Thunderwrath snorted at the mention of the incarcerated archmage. "He's in Aeol Drias custody, as everyone in this galley should recall. Nortrom will make sure that he doesn't utter a single word of an incantation ever again."

Luna frowned. "I was not there when you and Magina took him down. I was out of the fight when Nova and I took half a dozen arrows from Clinkz."

"Regardless, I have a strong feeling that whoever is doing this, and whoever conjured up the magical waves that swallowed up the Isle of Masks isn't someone we've met before," Tinker carefully declared, his eyes glued to the piece of parchment with a map of the Rishi Islands inscribed upon it. "The admiral would be wise to guide his ships – and us, very carefully."

…

Kunkka stood at his ship's bow, his hands clasped behind his back. Most of his sailors are still asleep, but some remained, tending to the night shift. The admiral peered across the horizon, his unexhausted eyes coming across nothing but a full moon's steady descent, and the endless sea. _I wonder how the sole surviving member of House Ambry is faring?_ He remembered the Lycan, and how he turned against the Dire, and into the Radiant side the moment the Skeleton King turned into the Wraith King. It was often joked that the only reason the wolfman even bothered siding with the Dire is because of the prospect of using King Ostarion's bones as chew toys.

It was then that the admiral's sharp ears picked up a familiar voice behind him. Always eager for a good conversation to pass the time, Kunkka stepped off the bow, turned around and caught sight of Luna's familiar figure, whispering to herself on one side of the railing. He quickly strode off for the Moon Rider.

"I half-expected you to show up here." He said. "What brings Princess Mirana's most trusted lieutenant to the deck?

Luna's form stiffened for a fleeting second before relaxing. "I was just finishing a prayer," She didn't turn around. "Before the moon disappears, Selemene requests a few parting words for her. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

Kunkka, seeing an opportunity to tell one of his stories, took his place at Luna's side. Knowing her temperamental attitude, he gave her a large open space for herself. "Well, I haven't really heard a lot about Selemene to see her in any sort of light, but I can respect your devotion. After all, unseen, mysterious forces are the reason I'm speaking to you right now."

Luna's eyes slowly opened, but she still remained in prayer. "An explanation is in order."

_Story time, _the admiral thought happily. Sometimes, he forgot how persuasive he could be. "Surely you must've heard about the once-mighty Claddish Armada and her struggle against the Demons of the Cataract at least seven years ago. It's a common – albeit true, depiction that I was right in the heated center of that battle, and how the Armada was reduced to virtually nothing by the end of the day, thanks to an unwelcome intervention by a creature called Leviathan and his patron god Maelrawn," There was surprisingly no malice that envenomed Kunkka's tone when he mentioned his old nemesis' name – this caught Luna off-guard.

"My ship, the brig named _Triton_, was one of the only ones of Cladd that survived the onslaught that ensued in the three-way naval battle. My loyal crew and I fought tooth and nail to keep that ship afloat, but we were fighting a terribly futile cause. Seeing that all hope might as well been lost, I ordered the few surviving members of my crew to set the gunpowder charges alight, before setting the ship on a ramming action against a Cataract second-rate."

"And yet you survived." The Moon Rider, who was now paying the admiral close attention, muttered quietly. "Figures you're on the Radiant side. Only the most resilient of men choose to fight for the Radiant Ancient."

Kunkka, with a smirk, shook his head, to Luna's confusion. "Oh, did I say I _survived_? Ha, I'm afraid that did not happen, despite popular rumors."

With an even, unruffled expression on her face, and with a flat, inexpressive tone, Luna blurted out, "You're dead."

"Aye, I would've been," The admiral nodded, but with a whimsical smile on his face. "But the Soul of Cladd refused to let me drown when I was flung off the brig's stern by my first mate. I remember the Soul saying that my life isn't something that it could afford to lose, as my king and my nation needed me. I remember healing hands closing and purifying the shrapnel wounds I sustained during the battle, very much like how Purist calls upon the Omniscience's power to provide healing to his allies. The largest of my wounds, a direct hit to my forehead, took a monumental amount of effort to fully heal, however." Kunkka pulled his tricorne up, letting Luna see the subtle X-shaped scar that marred his forehead. "The scar serves as a reminder that my life ended with the Armada that day, and that living further than that day is only still possible thanks to the Soul's intervention."

After Kunkka concluded his story, the moon has already been completely submerged. The ocean is now tinged with the telltale reddish-orange streak of the dawn's approach.

The admiral and the Dark Moon warrior watched the sun take the moon's place for several silent minutes. Unknown to many, Kunkka hated it when a conversation with a person came to a halt after a good story. Before long, he could not bear the silence any longer. "What about you, Luna? What were you doing before you dedicated your life into Selemene's serv—"

"That was an interesting tale, admiral." Luna suddenly cut Kunkka off. He noticed that she seemed frantic about something. "I appreciate your company, but Nova needs me."

With that said, the Moon Rider quickly turned on her heel and disappeared behind a corner. Kunkka, satisfied that he found someone to talk to, but now _un_satisfied that she left, stalked off to find someone else to unload a couple of his stories.

…

"And _that, _is how I got hold of my mastery over the oceans."

Boush and Thunderwrath looked ahead into the side of the ship, into the geyser that Kunkka had conjured on the ocean's surface for emphasis. Soon, it began to rain seawater on the three Heroes from the admiral's display of his arcane abilities.

The Tinker, through continuous exposure to Kunkka's presence, had learned to tolerate his use of magic. "But that still doesn't explain how you seem to be able to summon your old shipwrecked brig to your aid, or how you seem to have control over matter displacement."

"Ah, well… it's sorcery." Kunkka said, with a half-smile and a shrug. "Trying to explain them the way you want it just wouldn't do."

"You'd do well to see the arcane in a different light, Boush." Thunderwrath chimed in. "Perhaps once you do, you'd learn to make some contraptions that _aren't_ as unstable as the current ones you make."

"Hey, my machine-making skills are just fine! It's just that I had a recent stroke of bad luck, that's all." Boush responded haughtily. "Besides, I've already got plans to make a rapid-firing firearm for Sharpeye to use. I wonder how it would fare on his hands."

"He'd most likely explode," Kunkka predicted, running a hand to his beard.

"And I'll go through the trouble of patching him up. Like the last time you gave him a gun that shoots explosives." Thunderwrath cut in.

"Um— well," The Tinker fumbled. "I miscalculated some variables and disregarded the obvious danger of explosives… well, exploding prematurely. Rest assured, I'll take major stri—"

"Admiral, land ahead!" The Keen spotter nestled on the crow's nest shouted down at Kunkka. "The Rishi Islands! We're close!"

Without another word spoken, the crew scrambled for their duties. Kunkka immediately called his fellow Heroes to regroup on the bow, while telling Volkov to brief the shore party, and to prepare for combat. Soon, mere minutes later, all personnel within the _Mighty Leviathan_ could see the islands in plain view as they were buffeted by enormous waves that reached the size of a three-story house.

Hands shaking with anticipation, Boush flipped out his life-detector from a compartment on his hazard suit. "Hmm… how many people lived in these islands, Kunkka?"

"I can't tell for sure, but I estimate three-thousand people of different nationalities. See if I'm right."

Boush checked the islands again. "About two thousand four hundred life forms are in the islands, animals included. You'd best tell the flotilla to cruise forwards slowly, we can't risk the waves tearing our hull apart."

The Claddish flotilla formed a neat line behind the _Mighty Leviathan_ on the admiral's order. Soon, the islands were within spitting distance. Sure enough, gigantic waves began to buffet the ships, sending them heaving violently side to side. Sailors struggled to keep their footing on the wooden floors. Kunkka plunged his enchanted sword down on the floor and used it to hold himself steady, while the rest of the heroes devised ways to not get swept out into the raging seas.

Boush, with one mechanical arm from his hazard suit's platform clutching a metal railing, struggled with a spyglass. "I see something suspended above the islands!" He shouted over the ship's groaning and Volkov's repetitive barking of orders to crewmen. "I can't see it clearly enough! We need to get closer!"

The admiral, however, had had enough already. "No, the waves are getting too rough, the ship will get wolfed down in the waves in a few minutes in this condition! We need to withdraw back to safer seas!"

"It's getting larger!"

Kunkka turned his head to regard Lanaya, who was grasping at Thunderwrath's arm to support her footing. He mentally laughed at the image. "To the starboard side, over by the treeline, above!" She conjured up a psi-blade and jammed it skyward.

Through difficulty, the admiral looked at what the assassin is indicating at. He rubbed his eyes with his sleeve to see if his eyes are playing tricks on him. Unfortunately, the black, circular mass of what seemed like nothingness remained.

"By the moon, what the bloody hell is _that_!" Luna cried over the gale's harsh whisper. Nova's claws were digging into the wooden floor.

"It's an accursed portal!" Thunderwrath bellowed, bracing himself on a metal fence.

"No…" Boush's fingers were zipping swiftly across keyboard on a device he was holding, but his goggled eyes were completely focused on the anomaly. "I detect copious amounts of dark energy, it's a vortex – a localized black hole!"

"Enigma!" Thunderwrath angrily roared over the wind. "So _this_ is where that damned creature ran off to! This is why he wasn't with his Dire comrades that day!"

Boush had trouble believing it's the fourth Fundamental. "No, this _can't_ be Enigma! The energy signature present in the singularity isn't the same as—"

"Enough about that! We need to get the ships out of here before it swallows the flotilla whole!" Kunkka voiced. With a slight tug, he unplanted his blade from the floor and sheathed it. "You four, do whatever you can to turn this ship around. I'll see if I can calm the waves a little!"

The four Heroes saw no reason to argue and began to scramble about, providing their help to the first-rate's crew. Kunkka lugged his body against the wind, to the side of the ship. He began to use his Soul-given abilities over the seas in an effort to divert the waves away from the flotilla. Ten minutes in and he was already on the verge of exhaustion – strained hard after using his abilities without pause.

"Look out! INCOMING!" A crewman shouted.

Kunkka whirled around and cursed when he saw one of his brigs, the _Lucretia,_ being carried away by the vortex's pull, along with the flailing bodies of her sailors. He barely had enough time to head down on the floor, narrowly avoiding getting hit by the flying vessel. Before he could be carried away like the _Lucretia_ before him, Kunkka grabbed hold of a mast's rigging that was conveniently at reach.

"The admiral's in trouble!" Boush called over to Thunderwrath and Lanaya. "We sure could use a meat hook right now!"

"Don't give in, I'm coming to get you!" Thunderwrath began to take steps towards Kunkka's position. Lanaya hastily freed herself from his arm and grabbed hold of a nearby mast.

Kunkka saw Thunderwrath trudging his way towards him. Quickly unsheathing his blade once more, the admiral plunged it down on the floor to place his feet down. Once he had stabilized himself enough, he began to make use of Tidebringer as a cane.

"That's it! You're almost there!" Thunderwrath held out his gauntleted hand for Kunkka to take. But before the admiral could take it to be dragged back into safety, the ship unexpectedly swerved to the side. Kunkka promptly lost his footing and fell down on the floor. Thunderwrath, now acting in panic, tried to grab hold of one of the fallen admiral's limbs, but it was too late.

Kunkka was thrown into the air, straight into the vortex's direction. All that's left of him is Tidebringer, firmly planted on the wooden floor.

…

Thunderwrath felt like screaming at the wind in pure, unbridled rage. _He was almost there; I could've saved him! Oh, Omniscient One, why did you let this happen?_

"Look down on the floor, you idiot!" Lanaya screeched at him. "Be ready to pull him up!"

_How dare she!_ Thunderwrath angrily clenched his teeth. _I let him get swept away, how am I supposed to 'pull him up'?_

"Purist! Look at the bloody floor!" Luna joined the assassin. "Get your head out of your arse and _focus_!"

It was then that Thunderwrath decided to look at where Kunkka's form should be, had he not been pulled into the vortex. He was shocked to see a red X-mark on the floor, next to Tidebringer. _He's coming back!_

…

Kunkka hardly evaded a ripped post from knocking him out of the air. "Aw, bloody hell!" He steadied himself gradually, only to find that the mastless wreck of another of his ships, a sloop named _The Janissary_, was headed right for him.

Before he could so much as curse, his powers over displacement and matter relocation kicked in. A mere split-second before he could be hit by several tons of wood and metal, in a flash of red, Kunkka found himself back to his original position at his personal vessel. As expected, Thunderwrath was waiting for him to show up. The Omniknight wasted no time hauling the admiral back to his feet.

"There you are! The Omniscience is taking good care of you!"

Kunkka merely shivered. He lost his coat as he tumbled through the air. With the admiral holding on to Thunderwrath's shoulderplate, the two men trudged back to a safer portion of the deck.

"Uh, fellows?" Boush, in an unnervingly calm voice, cut in. "I don't know if you've noticed but the singularity appears to have gone… even larger."

Indeed, the vortex now reached the size of a rather large frigate. Trees, rocks, seawater and anything in the flotilla smaller than a fourth-rate are tossed into the air, straight into the expanding black mass. Kunkka's flagship, being a first-rate, would take a lot of time before it was sucked into the vortex, but the force pulling the Rishi Islands in will eventually have its way.

Lanaya was the second to notice the singularity's rapid expansion. "Hidden Ones preserve us…" She kept quiet after that.

"I never thought we'd perish by Enigma's hand, not by blade in service to Selemene." Luna uttered, gently stroking Nova's mane.

"Death is not the end, old friends." With calm conviction, Thunderwrath declared. "Don't despair. All that is of this world must come to an end. Let us face our fates with honor and dignity."

Kunkka, despite his situation, chuckled. "I'm quite sure I've been through this before, Purist. But if the worst comes to pass, I'll see everyone on the other side."

Boush seemed less than thrilled at the prospect of perishing today, however. "All the research and hard work I've put my mind into will be lost. And I doubt the 'other side' even exists, admiral. If my predictions are correct – which is very likely, we won't even see anything after the singularity had its way with us."

Suddenly, Kunkka remembered about the cigars he'd stashed after stopping by at Port Darlanad. "We should head inside, it's getting cold out here. We probably have enough time to serve ourselves a mug of rum."

The four Heroes, having come up with nothing better to spend their time on, followed after Kunkka. Along the way, they came across some of the crew, huddling for cover and trying their best to stay calm in hopes of making out of their situation alive. Kunkka could only give them cold smiles of assurance.

When the five Heroes reached the galley, Boush hastily shut the door behind them before proceeding to pace around, seemingly trying to use his prodigious mind to find a way out of the vortex's grasp. Lanaya walked over to one corner and kept to herself, apparently content to stay quiet until the end. Thunderwrath resolved to spend the rest of his moments in prayer, Luna and Nova sat down on the floor, using each other for warmth, and Kunkka retrieved his stash of cigars, promptly perching one on his mouth and stuffing four into his shirt pocket.

"Here." He handed one of the cigars to Boush, interrupting his pacing about. "It calms the nerves."

Boush didn't hesitate. He took the cigar and made use of it, apparently not caring that he already had a still-smoking pipe perched on his mouth. "I guess I should spend the rest of my time at peace. Thank you."

Kunkka made his way to Luna and Nova. He tried to hand the Dark Moon warrior a sailor's traditional form of entertainment, but she merely shook her head. "No thanks. I'm calm enough as it is." Her features then adopted a distant, longing look. "Although, I'd be a lot calmer if I was in the heat of battle, sinking my glaives into a Dire soldier's flesh."

Seeing the concerned look the admiral gave her, Luna promptly dropped her vulnerable appearance. "You can give it to Nova, see if she likes it."

Deciding to entertain Luna's wishes, the admiral tossed one of the cigars to the saber-toothed beast. Nova wasted no time gobbling it up. Chuckling, he walked to Thunderwrath. But upon seeing him deep in meditation, Kunkka decided not to disturb his old friend in favor of doing something he thought he'd never do in his life: try to hand the Templar Assassin a cigar.

"Since we'll be staying in here for quite a while, you might as well have this," Kunkka offered the cigar to Lanaya, who looked at him incredulously. "Come on, Lanaya. Live a little."

"That is an ironic thing to say, knowing that we're all going to die." The admiral detected a hint of humor to the assassin's tone, which is much rarer than all the gold in the world. "You just want to see behind my mask, don't you?"

The admiral shrugged. "Eh, more or less. Before we all go down, we might as well see something that I'm pretty sure none have seen before in recorded history."

The assassin wordlessly snatched the cigar from the admiral's gloved, outstretched hand. "I'm sorry, but history's just going to have to wait, grand admiral."

She flicked the cigar in the air before smoothly slicing it in two with a well timed upwards slash of her psi-blade. Behind her mask, Lanaya smirked at the shocked expression Kunkka was giving her.

"That was from Misrule," The admiral muttered looking over the two smoking halves of his cigar. "A small box of them is worth a gun-brig and twelve carronades!" He made all sorts of wild gestures at the cigar's remains on the floor.

"Ha, I'm sure you'll find a way around it." Lanaya said, smug as she could.

Kunkka gave her a frown before sighing and throwing his hands up. "I guess you're calm enough. Hell, once we die, I think you'll be the only one wearing a smile through it all."

The assassin shrugged her shoulders. "For one, I'm glad I won't have to leave this plane by myself."

"That's the spirit," The admiral did a half-smile, but Lanaya noticed the apprehension in his eyes as well, expertly masked with mock courage. "Well, I'm happy to know that you're glad _for once_."

Kunkka was just about to take another lungful out of his cigar, when the ship's repetitive rocking and shaking abruptly came to a halt. However, the harsh sounds made by the wind started to worsen, and the six occupants of the galley suddenly found themselves thrown to the floor by an invisible force.

It took several tense minutes for these unusual phenomena to come to an end. The five Heroes tentatively picked themselves up and dusted their clothes. They stood silent for a while, until Boush decided to speak up.

"Maybe the singularity collapsed on itse—"

The ship was suddenly struck by what seemed like an earthquake, cutting off the Tinker. The Heroes' situation was reversed; they were now flung towards the ceiling by the same invisible force that forced them to the floor. Tables were thrown into the air, chairs were smashed into splinters against the walls, the lights inside the galley were all snuffed out and seawater began to flood the ship. It was the beginning of the end.

* * *

The sea shanty featured here is a modified version of 'The Maid in Amsterdam'. Groeneveld is Dutch for green field, as I'm informed. Mijn vrouw means 'my wife'.


	3. First Enemy, First Ally

People get disembowelled in this chapter.

* * *

**Emauracus**

Thunderwrath coughed. His chest still felt a little bit irritated, so he coughed some more. He coughed for all its worth, not bothering to open his eyes and see what's wrong.

"Purist! Stop coughing, you're making it worse!" A distorted voice shouted. "Open your eyes."

Seeing no reason to do otherwise, the Omniknight did as he was told.

With the left lens of his goggles laced with a fair amount of cracks, Boush was the first person Thunderwrath saw. The Keenish scientist was standing before him, apparently doing something with his chestplate. Turning his head around, Thunderwrath also caught sight of something blurry moving over at the distance, but he paid it no mind.

"Now, now. Don't try to get up. I'm trying to pull it off." The Tinker said.

Thunderwrath reluctantly turned his head to see what's the 'it' that Boush was talking about. It was a sharpened, bent steel shaft, most likely what once was a part of a railing. It went right through his chestplate, skewering him.

"Yes, it's quite the problem you have here. This piece of metal appears to have went right through your cuirass, past your undermail and beyond your torso." Boush stated the obvious in his best medical-sounding tone. "Not to worry, I've been through many situations like this before. I'm perfectly capable of heal—"

With a groan and a sigh, Thunderwrath pushed Boush away and took the metal rod sticking out of his chest before roughly pulling it out of himself. The only sign he gave to indicate his pain was a slight grunt.

After casting a purification spell over his wound, Thunderwrath said, "I've been through a lot worse, Tinker."

Boush shook off his horrified expression. "Ehm, yes… of course. Are you well enough to walk?"

"What happened to the others?" Ignoring Boush's question, Thunderwrath gave him his own.

"The admiral had already gone outside," Boush informed, adjusting his goggles. "He and Luna are trying to keep order among this ship's remaining crew. Lanaya, however, stalked off somewhere. We haven't seen her in a bit of time now."

Thunderwrath took a few moments to process the Keenish scientist's words. Every part of his body felt livid with soreness, especially the wound on his chest, but pain is one thing that the Omniknight had learned to ignore and nullify over the years. Indeed, for Thunderwrath, pain felt like an old friend's warm greeting – a familiar presence coming to grace his senses.

"But where exactly did we end up?" Came Thunderwrath's next question. It seemed that it caught Boush off-guard, as his posture seemed to stiffen. "Are we still inside Enigma's vortex?"

Boush shook his head. "I'm certain we're not. Wherever we are, we're definitely far away from the singularity. If you wish to follow me and head outside, you might want to cover up that dreadful lesion on your chest. Winter appears to have come a tad bit premature this year."

…

"Bloody hell, it's cold."

Kunkka rigidly nodded. He couldn't agree more. "Truly. Even the Wailing Mountains aren't as frigid as this place." Indeed, the admiral is wearing multiple layers of thick winter clothing over his body.

Luna was behind Kunkka and clinging to Nova. The two Nightsilver natives are trying their earnest to share the tiny scrap of warmth from their bodies.

"Where is 'this place', I might ask?" The Moon Rider asked.

The admiral shook his head cheerlessly. "I'd have said that we're somewhere near Blueheart Glacier, but my Keen navigators keep telling me that something isn't right with their navigating and positioning equipment." He plunged a hand down his coat pocket and took out a thin piece of runic paper. "And all the runemaps aren't working properly. Our location within the map isn't showing up at all. It's like we've… disappeared, from the world altogether."

"That's a grim prospect," Luna said, her expression that of severe worry. "What are we going to do, then? Are we just going to keep sailing aimlessly until we find lands familiar enough for us?"

"I'm afraid not," Kunkka answered. "We'll just get our bearings straight before—"

"Kunkka," Suddenly, Lanaya appeared right behind the admiral, beside Luna. The crew didn't even notice the assassin skulking towards their leader. "We're in trouble."

Luna warily turned to Lanaya. "By the moon, do you always do that to everyone? I could've killed you if it wasn't so freezing out here!"

Lanaya merely brushed Luna aside and walked further to Kunkka. "I've caught sight of two longship fleets heading towards us from the west southwest and to the southeast. They're from different factions, I could tell that much."

Kunkka narrowed his eyes. "How did you know this?"

The assassin rolled her eyes. "Unlike the rest of the people in this ship, I'm actually trying to see if we're in danger right after we left that portal. My instincts, as always, appear to be right."

"No, I mean _how_ did you see them coming?" Kunkka repeated. He looked ready to call for his crew to man their battlestations.

"I took one of Boush's spyglasses. I used it to look around our surroundings." Lanaya responded. "But that's not important. We should get the crew prepared to act. How are the repairs faring?"

Kunkka turned to regard the interiors of his vessel. The crew are still moving up and down the decks, carrying tools and supplies to carry out the necessary field repairs to the _Leviathan_. "It should be done in a few hours. How far are the longships from us?"

"Not far, but we should have enough time to gear up. There's no use running from the fleets, our ships are too bulky to outmaneuver theirs. We could either respond with hostile force, or we could try and be diplomatic. This is your flotilla, grand admiral. It's only fitting that it's your choice, as well.

"Finally." Luna was now wearing an eager smirk. "I could make do with a little bloodshed, and Nova could use a snack. Isn't that right, girl?" The armored beast growled, clearly sharing her rider's enthusiasm for violence.

"I'm not sure about that," Kunkka said, unamused at how Luna was keen to go to war. "I've already lost quite a few men and vessels from that Soul-damned black hole. I'm not willing to lose any more. We'll try to parley first."

Luna frowned, but the zealous gleam in her purple eyes never faltered. "Of course, if they _don't_ want to negotiate, we'll have no choice but to fight back."

With reluctance, the admiral nodded. "Aye, I'm afraid so."

Before Luna and Nova could properly celebrate, Thunderwrath and Boush emerged from downstairs. "I trust that we haven't missed anything while we're away." Boush said, noticing Lanaya's presence.

"Lanaya will get you two up to speed." Kunkka informed the two Heroes. "You look already dressed up for a fight. It'd do you good if you keep that way for the next few hours. We have some guests to entertain."

And with that said, Kunkka stalked off to make himself presentable in both senses of the word.

…

**Avarosa**

"My queen, our fleet should be nearing Cape Bjorgsen." Captain Dagvard reported. "Winter's Claw forces should be just ahead. In fact, the men could already smell the polluted stench wafting from their filthy, unwashed bodies."

"Very good, captain. How fare Tryndamere's forces in the mainland?" Queen Ashe of Freljord asked. She didn't bother to look at Dagvard, as something in the horizon has caught her attention. "I trust that their endeavor is performing well?"

"We've received reports from the western battlefront yesterday." The captain's hardened features turned solemn. "I'm sorry to say that Avarosan forces have been pushed back from Helgavatni to Beruvik. King Tryndamere is alive, but he's taken a bad hit from a Claw archer to the left lung. He would be off the frontlines for a few weeks at the least."

This time, Ashe removed her gaze from the horizon and to Dagvard. "I'm very distressed to hear that. Being too far away to give any sort of assistance to the main force really troubles me, knowing that I could not take action to prevent any disasters."

"I'm sure King Tryndamere's forces only experienced a temporary setback, Your Majesty." Dagvard assured the queen. "By the time we return to Rakelstake, His Majesty would've already extended our reach immeasurably. After all, representatives from the city-states have been pledging themselves to your cause left and right."

Ashe could only hope. Even the best that the city-states could offer – a small contingent of Dauntless Vanguard warriors – might not be enough to put a dent into the Winter's Claw warmachine. The queen gave her thanks to the captain before walking off further into the longship's bow. Conjuring up and animating a frigid sculpture of a hawk, she sent the magical construct beyond her fleet's sight. This simple scouting maneuver had saved Ashe's life more than enough times in the Fields of Justice. It took several dreadful minutes of anticipation before the frost hawk returned, and with it, news of an unexpected arrival of a third party.

…

**Winter's Claw**

"What do you see?" Sejuani, with arms crossed and eyes narrowed, impatiently asked the captain of the longship she was in.

Captain Wilhelmsen took a few moments to himself with the spyglass to respond. "Aye, there's a small flotilla of southern-style vessels just a few kilometers ahead of us. I can't tell what city-state they're from because of that strange-looking banner on their sails, but I can tell that they're not with the Avarosans, that's for sure."

The Winter's Claw leader roughly snatched the spyglass from Wilhelmsen's hands. She grunted before using the Bilgewatian-made device to look ahead into the horizon.

Wilhelmsen frowned and backed away from Sejuani a few steps. "They look like they took some battle damage, too. Some of the sails were ripped off or torn in some areas, some of the masts are missing, and the hulls look like they've been rammed a little too much."

Indeed, Sejuani could clearly see that some of the ships were being field-repaired as she spied. If it weren't for the damages the flotilla sustained, the sheer size of the ship in the middle and the intimidating gunmetal gray paint the vessels sported might've given her and her fleet pause. _No matter_, she thought. _They haven't made an effort to pledge themselves to me. They'll die just like the tribes I ground to dust after proclaiming their 'neutrality'._

Grimacing to herself upon realizing that she rhymed in her mind, Sejuani shoved the spyglass to Wilhemsen's chest. She stalked off and made the order to continue with the assault, but with more vigilance. There are new targets in play.

…

**Cladd**

"Admiral! The bluesails aren't stopping!" Volkov shouted over at the portside of the _Leviathan_. "Two kilometers tops!"

"Sir, the tealsails are getting closer!" A crewman shouted at the starboard side. "Four kilometers and counting!"

Kunkka was right in the middle. Outfitted in a cuirass forged in pure mithril and adorned in a heavy combat greatcoat, the grand admiral was as prepared for war as he'll ever be, even if he's really hoping for a diplomatic solution to his dilemma. With one gloved hand firmly on the grip of the master-crafted sword Rubick had gifted to him – the Finblade, Kunkka strode over to Volkov.

"Tell every one of our vessels to signal that we want to parley with both sides." He ordered as he viewed the bluesails' approach. "Lower the sails so they know that we intend them no harm."

"Yet." Luna faintly muttered over at her corner.

"You need psychiatric help," Boush instantly regretted his decision to speak, as Nova's outstretched paw suddenly knocked him off his feet. "Ow."

Thunderwrath chuckled inaudibly and Lanaya rolled her eyes.

…

**Avarosa **

"What could they be possibly doing?" Dagvard asked, to himself more than anyone. There was a strange little man standing at the starboard side of one of the unknown vessels, waving around little flags in an almost mechanical motion. It's as if he's waving the flags in a pattern, expecting the Avarosan fleet to recognize them.

"They want to negotiate," Ashe suddenly spoke up, after a few moments of complete silence from the whole crew of the longship. "I recognize the signals. See how they're lowering their sails? That's the Demacian signal calling for a peaceful surrender."

"Then what should we do?" Dagvard questioned his queen. "Should we oblige their request, or should we ignore them and focus on—"

"We'll leave them be for now." Ashe interposed. "I can see Sejuani's fleet approaching far ahead. We should deal with the barbarians first, then we'll see what these vessels are trying to do in Freljord."

…

**Winter's Claw**

"I have no idea." Wilhelmsen warily answered. "They're trying to signal for us, but I don't have a clue of what they're trying to say."

Sejuani snorted. "Ignore them then. We're here to slaughter the crew of every last ship that isn't brandishing our colors. These new arrivals are no exception."

Wilhelmsen shrugged. "As the Winter's Wrath wishes it, it shall be so."

…

**Cladd**

"The tealsails are responding!" Volkov, now prepared for battle, shouted at Kunkka.

The grand admiral strode off to Volkov's side at the starboard. He took out his own spyglass and observed the tealsails. Indeed, the crew of the longship he was spying on – men and women armored in chainmail and fur-lined steel plates inscribed with runic symbols – were mimicking the Keenish signal officer with their own set of signals, which are unfortunately too unfamiliar and foreign-looking for Kunkka and his crew.

"They're turning to the side, I think. Going around our formation to get to the other side." Boush stated, matter-of-factly. "They have no business with us, but with the other longship fleet at the _Leviathan_'s portside." The Tinker paused to adjust his goggles. "And by the looks of their crewmen, they appear to be suited for battle. I think they're here to meet the bluesails for war, Kunkka."

The grand admiral's eyes widened. "And we're right in the middle of their Soul-cursed battlefield. What are the odds of being thrown out of a black hole and into a place like this?"

Boush shook his head, "As smart as I am, I'm afraid I don't have the answer to—"

Kunkka was already running off to inform his crew of the new revelations Boush had discovered. Once everybody has been properly informed, the navigators scrambled to get the Claddish flotilla in motion again, to avoid being caught up in the crossfire, the cannoneer crew was already in the process of manning the _Leviathan_'s numerous gun decks and the five Heroes all tensed up and prepared for combat.

…

**Winter's Claw**

"They're hoisting up their sails again!" Wilhelmsen told Sejuani. "They're trying to get away!"

Sejuani growled. "We can't let them. Tell the rowers to do their jobs _faster. _Set all the longships for a collision course on every last foreign vessel. Let there be no quarter." And with that said, the Winter's Wrath stalked off to fetch her mount and her gear.

Wilhelmsen immediately obliged with his orders, but all of them remained oblivious to the cannons that Kunkka's ships are priming at that very moment.

…

**Cladd**

The loud crashing thuds of several subsequent ramming maneuvers from the bluesail longships rocked the _Leviathan_. Kunkka leaned over at his ship's portside and found that every last vessel under his command is now under siege by bluesail boarders. The admiral's vessel is not an exception, despite its massive size.

Before the admiral could turn to the starboard side to see what the tealsails are trying to do, metal hooks began to fly from the longships encircling the _Leviathan, _and arrows began to fly in the air, imbedding themselves on some of the crew with a wet _squelch_. Some of the hooks missed, but most accomplished their goals of securing a link between the boarders and their target ship. Kunkka grimaced as he saw the figures of several armored men scaling all the sides of his ship, with swords, axes and other weapons at the ready.

_It's time to spring our trap,_ Kunkka thought. With the bluesail longships in very close proximity with the Claddish ships, they were ripe targets for synchronized broadsides.

"Get the swivels firing now! Load incendiaries and fire the portside guns on my mark!" The admiral shouted to his crew. The signallers began to broadcast the admiral's intentions to the flotilla, to which the Claddish vessels responded affirmative in kind. Once some of the boarders are now halfway to the first deck, Kunkka gave the order. "Let fly, all guns!"

The portside gunnery crew slid the wooden windows that covered their cannons to the side. A few boarders were unfortunate enough to be right over some of the windows when they opened. The boarders roared at the little men manning the cannons. In response, with manic grins on their faces, the Keenish cannoneers lit up their guns and fired.

The guns fired like an infantry firing line, starting with the leftmost guns and ending with the rightmost – mirroring a platoon firing drill. The bluesail longboats in front of the broadside were utterly smashed by the incendiary cannon barrage. Wooden splinters and pieces of metal flew in every conceivable direction as the longships themselves were turned to burning wooden derelicts, doomed to sink under the glacial waves. Soon, the six remaining vessels under Kunkka's command mirrored the _Leviathan_'s attack, giving the image that even when heavily damaged, the Claddish Navy isn't to be taken down by mere longships.

Kunkka smiled at his gunnery crew's work, basking in the orange glow that the explosions gave. In a moment, he was back with his comrades, prepared to deal with the angry boarders that assailed his ship. Since the Dire Ancient's defeat several months ago, the admiral had no shortage of opportunistic pirates, bounty hunters and raiders to deal with; his skills with a blade never waned. If anything, it _improved_.

"Luna, Selemene has chosen to confer to you your wish." The admiral deadpanned, brandishing the Finblade. Moments later, his powers over the element of water caused the blade to be enveloped in magical, razor-sharp waters. "How does it feel?"

As a response, the Moon Rider drew a glaive from Nova's reserve. "Wonderful."

"Y-you really need—" Thunderwrath silenced Boush with a quick bop to the head. Lanaya resisted the urge to once again do an eye-roll, opting instead for materializing her blades.

Once the first boarder arrived to the top deck, he issued a roar meant to intimidate. He failed utterly, as the glaive sticking out of his throat cut his attempt woefully short. Kunkka lead the charge to protect the _Leviathan_. Sweeping his sword sideways, he bisected three bluesail warriors in a single strike. "Defend the ship! For crown and country!"

…

**Avarosa**

"Queen Ashe, the Winter's Claw are attacking the newcomers." Dagvard reported. "The newcomer flotilla had dealt a serious blow with those fiery broadsides, but Sejuani's ships are many. They won't last under a continued assault."

Ashe sent off another magical construct to see how to newcomers are doing under Sejuani's hostile attention. Through the icy hawk's eyes, the Frost Archer saw a grim image; the newcomers, having only a few men on each ship, were holding their ground quite admirably, but as the time flew past, their numbers dwindled under a constant barrage of Winter's Claw warriors. The smaller ships were having trouble holding against the Winter's Claw, but the largest one, a 'first-rate' from what Jarvan III told her on her diplomatic visit to Demacia, seemed to have no trouble keeping itself free of any hostiles, thanks to a five-man team of extraordinary individuals.

One of them acted very much like a certain Noxian assassin with how she moved. Dexterously avoiding any attacks meant for her, (and sometimes taking grievous blows with seemingly no effect on her) the assassin dispensed death to whoever was unlucky enough to be chosen as her target with twin purple-glowing blades. Ashe noticed that the assassin only seemed to take notice of officers, leaving the lower-ranking underlings alone for the other crewmen to deal with. But when she does manage to catch a suitable target within her sights, the assassin was quick to carry out a swift field assassination. Whenever this assassin found herself out of officers to gut, she simply disappears from view, hidden to everyone but her comrades.

The next person seemed to act as the muscle for the group. He was a burly mountain of a soldier that took blows meant for his comrades – and it was a job that he shouldered with commendable endurance. When some of his companions fell under a torrent of attacks, the soldier was quick on his feet to heal the fallen crewman with some sort of spell that summoned rays of light from above, sealing an ally's wounds and scorching any nearby enemy, sometimes even setting them alight with holy fire. When all else fails though, this soldier was sure to rely on the enormous hammer he carried. It seemed that this soldier's mere presence was intolerable to some of the Winter's Claw warriors, as they seemed hesitant to swing their weapons.

The third person in the group was a dead ringer for Sejuani herself if it weren't for her armor and her choice of a mount, Ashe thought. Wading into battle with reckless abandon, the beast-riding warrior threw glaive-like weapons with disturbing accuracy, dishing out a multitude of gruesome fates by her blades. Upon further observation, Ashe could see a self-satisfied smirk gracing the warrior's mouth – clearly, she was right at home in the midst of a bloodbath. What's worse, once in a while, the warrior would conjure up a spell that summoned the opposite of the soldier's healing rays of sunlight – devastating rays of purely harmful moonlight. The warrior used her skills to lay waste upon man and longship alike.

The fourth member of this group is a small man, giving an image of a yordle. Instead of the swords and blades that his comrades relied on, this man was an engineer, relying on his gadgetry and smarts to keep himself on his feet and alive. The engineer kept away from the heavy fighting, wasting away on an isolated corner and releasing target-seeking rockets from the contraption he had over his shoulders. Every once in a while, the engineer would save surrounded crewmen with a well-timed beam of intensified light, dropping down several enemy warriors with one fast sweep.

The last of them – the leader – Ashe could tell by how he dressed and acted, caught the Frost Archer's attention most. Carrying an enchanted blade inscribed in elaborate runes and markings and swathed in what seemed like magical seawater, the admiral summoned torrents of frosty seawater from his surroundings to smite enemy warriors overboard, or to squash them into paste. When some of them got close enough to go into melee range, the admiral deftly evaded and parried all the blows his opponents gave, before delivering fluid, lethal strikes of his own. For some reason, the sword he wielded seemed to cleave right through its victims, often tearing any nearby Winter's Claw warriors unfortunate enough to be close to it in two bleeding halves of soaked flesh.

"My queen?" Dagvard's voice forced Ashe to come back to reality. "Are you alright?"

Ashe waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, I'm fine. Tell the longships to prepare for boarding actions. We're providing Avarosan assistance to these newcomers."

…

**Cladd**

Kunkka rolled out of the way of an incoming greatsword swing, one that should've separated his shoulders and his head from the rest of his body if he were to remain in his position. Propping himself up rather quickly, the admiral slashed the winding barbarian's stomach right open, spilling his internal organs out into the deck.

Soon, twelve of the fallen warrior's friends came for the admiral, carrying axes, swords and bows of varying quality. Kunkka only made a tired smile before causing a miniature tsunami of icy water to rise up and toss some of the warriors into a nearby glacier. With their numbers down to half, the admiral made his move.

Rushing onto the closest of the barbarians, Kunkka knocked the axe from his soaked hands with his sword before slicing off his left leg from the knee down, letting him bleed to death. The enchanted water coating the edges of his blade turned razor-sharp before flinging themselves into any nearby bluesail warrior, inflicting injuries and softening armor.

Three of the barbarians then threw themselves at the admiral, hoping to overwhelm him with brute force alone. Kunkka traded blows with his adversaries for a few seconds, until he saw an opening after dodging an overhead swing from an axe. As his attacker tried to pull his axe free from a mast, the admiral bashed the top of his helmet with his blade's pommel. Acting quickly, he drew one of the seven pistols he carried under his coat and fired into the barbarian's gut, ending his life.

Tossing the spent firearm away, Kunkka drew another pistol and fired at another barbarian in the middle of a roaring charge, scoring a hit to his shoulder. The barbarian stopped in his charge, only to be finished off by another quick pistol shot to the forehead. The third barbarian flew into a (even angrier) rage at witnessing the deaths of his companions. He closed the distance between him and Kunkka and proceeded to hack away at the admiral in a bid to break through his defenses and land a lethal blow. The admiral coolly tried to evade all the blows from the warrior, but he was interrupted by an arrow that imbedded itself on his shoulderplate. It didn't penetrate his shoulder, but it was painful nonetheless. Kunkka retaliated by shooting the archer dead.

The third barbarian was quick to utilize the advantage he now possessed to further drive Kunkka into the starboard side, with the intention of throwing him overboard. Kunkka realized that he doesn't have the upper hand anymore, so he immediately decided that he'd have to fight in a less than honorable way to prevail. Besides, it's not like these barbarians are actually fighting with nobility.

Kunkka let his opponent fall into a false sense of security by letting him believe he had the admiral beat, letting himself be driven further back onto the side of the ship. Once the admiral's back was now physically in touch with the metal railing, he let himself get roughly kicked off into the sea, but not before casting a relocation spell upon himself. The barbarian let loose a victorious howl upon realizing that he's triumphant against his adversary. He was understandably shocked out of his mind when the admiral suddenly materialized right before him like magic.

Exploiting his opponent's surprise, Kunkka swept his blade sideways. The barbarian's head was now a good ten meters away from its body. Drenched in chilly seawater with only the adrenaline coursing through his veins to keep himself warm, Kunkka took out the arrow sticking out of his shoulderplate relatively quickly before heading off into the thick of the fight once more. The remaining boarders were finished off after a few more minutes of heavy fighting. Luna and Boush suffered some minor injuries, but Thunderwrath took care of their problems.

"That's the last of them, admiral!" Volkov, with a bandaged-over left eye, declared. Kunkka saw that his cutlass is drenched with blood, and even the grip of his pistol was bloodied. "The _Absalom, _the _Celeste _and the _Heinrich_ _III_ are still trying to hold the bastards back. What do we do?"

Kunkka was about to answer, when a loud _swishing_ sound was heard. Both men turned their heads just in time to see a giant arrow-shaped projectile made out of pure ice blow open a hole into the side of one of the enemy longships. Kunkka already had his hands on his spyglass before the projectile ended its flight. He turned to the starboard side and found that the tealsails had advanced right next to his flotilla, their crew brandishing bows and arrows, unleashing their deadly payload into the bluesail fleet.

Kunkka grinned at his new allies. He turned to Volkov behind him and said, "Feodor, tell the crew to hoist the sails and load another volley. We'll show these filthy bluesails how the Claddish Navy won against the Cataract!"

…

**Winter's Claw**

Sejuani crushed another opponent under her mount Bristle's hooves. For extra measure, the Winter's Wrath ushered her mount to move to the side before bringing down a couple of strikes from her flail at the long-dead crewman. Soon after, she waded into battle once more, delivering a lethal amount of bludgeoning to anyone who stood at her path. Whether they were allies or foes, Sejuani's flail knew no difference.

Just when she was about to flatten the leader of the ship she was raiding, a frozen arrow imbedded itself on Sejuani's gauntleted swinging arm, encasing it in frost. With a growl, Sejuani turned her head to the source of the arrow – Queen Ashe of Freljord.

"We meet in the thick of battle once more, _Queen_ Ashe." Sejuani stressed Ashe's formal title before proceeding to dismount and backhand her earlier victim across the face with her frozen arm, shattering the ice.

"The Winter's Wrath… always so barbaric and vicious," Ashe nonchalantly stated, stepping into the newcomer second-rate with a contingent of Avarosan warriors. "You could've turned the newcomers to your cause and against us, but you chose to attack. Your tribe's savagery will be its downfall, I predict."

"Enough with the talking!" Sejuani barked. "I came here to crush your useless head under Bristle's hooves like a grape, and I intend to make that happen today!" The Winter's Wrath, with her own group of soldiers, charged forwards. Ashe and her soldiers nocked their arrows and emptied a single volley into the charging berserkers.

Some of the Winter's Claw dropped down on the deck after an arrow lodged itself in their unprotected throats, but most kept charging, even with more than a few arrows sticking out of their bodies. The Avarosans drew their swords and braced themselves. Seconds later, another melee erupted in the second-rate's top deck. The Winter's Claw were initially at a disadvantage because of their injuries, but with their superior skills in hand-to-hand, close-quarters combat and greater numbers, they gradually took the lead. The Avarosans, being untrained in close-quarters fighting, were desperate to keep themselves alive. Ashe herself was having trouble with putting down the barbarians quick enough, and she quickly ordered her remaining troops to move back and 'kite', as she learned the term from the League's Summoners.

The Avarosans promptly disengaged and let loose their arrows from the distance, putting themselves in the brief advantage once more. However, with the sheer numbers and tenacity the Winter's Claw warriors possessed, the Avarosans, in time, would gradually dwindle in numbers and be wiped out.

Ashe nocked an enchanted arrow and fired. Seven of the barbarians clutched at their gullets when a frozen arrow wedged itself in them. Quickly ducking out of the way of an incoming bola, Ashe barely had any time to evade a flail that were to flatten her, if she remained stationary. _Sejuani,_ she thought. Quickly, Ashe tried to nock another arrow, but the Winter's Wrath knocked the frigid bow from her hands with her flail. The bow nearly fell into the sea as it tumbled on the wooden deck.

Now standing face-to-face with her adversary, Ashe tried to move away, but her boots are frozen into the deck. Sejuani now had the queen at her mercy.

Sejuani took the time to smirk and laugh at Ashe's folly. "Ah, I believe this is… what was it called?" She swung her flail back in preparation for the strike that would make her Freljord's undisputed, iron-fisted ruler.

"Oh, I remember. Checkmate!" The Winter's Wrath swung her flail at the queen.

…

**Avarosa**

Ashe was prepared to leave Runeterra behind, but the blow from Sejuani never came. The queen stared at the Winter's Wrath in astonishment as she was suddenly teleported back to where she was a few seconds ago – in the midst of her Winter's Claw warriors.

The Frost Archer was even more surprised when Sejuani and several of her soldiers were suddenly swept off their feet by a magical geyser of water that materialized underneath them. The Frost Archer turned her head to see the newcomers' flagship docking near the ship she was in. Several of the newcomers then jumped down from their giant vessel and proceeded to provide their assistance to the Avarosans. Slowly, the two combined forces pushed the Winter's Claw out of the ship and either back into their longboats, or overboard.

"Ahoy there, archer!" The leader slowly made his way to Ashe. She noticed that he's slightly soaked, as if he went for a swim in the frozen sea. "Are you alright? That savage nearly smashed you into the deck."

"No, I'm not alright!" Ashe snapped rather harshly. Seeing the unamused look the leader is giving her, Ashe reformed herself quickly. "That very same savage froze my boots to the floor. Could you give me a hand?"

The leader frowned before gesturing for one of his companions to come closer. It was the little man - the engineer. "Boush will take care of that with a low-intensity beam. You should look away, or you might go blind."

Ashe looked at the leader disbelievingly. _He's ordering me around? Does he even _know_ who I am and where he is?_

The leader's features turned impatient. "Please, milady. I saw you fight with that frozen bow of yours. I can tell that you're one hell of an archer, and it'd be a shame if that went to waste."

_What do you mean I'm 'one hell of an archer'? I'm Queen Ashe of Frejord!_ Ashe contemplated retorting. With reluctance and with a sigh, she pulled down her hood even further and obliged.

"Right," A small, wizened voice said. "Your feet might feel a little warm."

…

**Avarosa/Cladd**

With her mobility restored, Ashe immediately bolted off to where her bow landed and retrieved it. She was about to give the leader her thanks despite his rudeness, but she saw that him and his five-man group were already back in the fight. Not to be outdone, the Frost Archer strode off with her warriors.

With an arrow nocked, she drew the projectile back and released, scoring a direct hit to a Winter's Claw archer who was in the process of rearming his weapon. Nocking another arrow, she fired at an enemy officer, who refused to go down in one shot. Deciding that he deserves special treatment, Ashe nocked one of her enchanted arrows and propelled all seven of the ensuing projectiles into the officer's body, literally turning him into a human frigid pincushion.

"Luna, go and deal with that boar-riding lass!" Ashe heard the leader's voice amongst the sounds of battle.

"Eager to!" Came the response from the warrior, Ashe heard. Seconds later, she saw a mounted figure jumping away from the newcomer ship and into a Winter's Claw longship. The figure is followed by another mounted figure – a more graceful and agile one, but no less bloodthirsty.

Ashe ran to the middle of the fight, easily dispatching any hostile warriors who made her a target. There, she found the leader and the soldier holding off a fair-sized horde of barbarians, among with a couple of her soldiers. Pooling their skills together, the three of them made short work of the enemy forces. The second-rate ship was now free of any Winter's Claw presence, but there were legions more aboard the other vessels.

"You! The admiral!" Ashe tersely called out, after collecting her bearings. "We need to talk!"

The leader turned his head and grimaced. "You again. What is it this time?"

_Ugh, he is so intolerable!_ Ashe clenched her teeth in barely restrained anger. _What is he trying to prove?!_ Swallowing her fury at his continued discourtesy, Ashe went straight to the point. "You ordered one of your soldiers to intercept Sejuani, the leader of these savages. I'm ordering you to accompany me and my soldiers as we forge ahead. We'll kill Sejuani and you'll get your reward. But first, I want an apology from you."

…

**Cladd/Avarosa**

Kunkka's eyes widened in shock. "A _what_?"

The archer looked like she was dangerously close to nocking an arrow. "You heard me. I snapped at you once, and then you started being disrespectful to me, like you don't know who I am."

The admiral sheathed his sword. "To be honest, milady, I really don't know who you are, or who are you meant to represent. If anything, you should've at least heard about _me_." He replied. Kunkka found this archer's audaciousness quite admirable, but her attitude irritated him.

"Oh?" The archer folded her arms and glared at the admiral with those frosty blue orbs of hers. "I'm afraid I haven't heard of you. Pray tell, what is your name?"

Kunkka decided to entertain the archer. "I'm Grand Admiral Kunkka of the New Claddish Armada. My flotilla ended up in these frigid waters because of some unforseen consequences."

The archer clearly looked unimpressed, Kunkka observed. His respect for her grew a little. A _little_. "On the other hand, I am Queen Ashe of Freljord. I am here to meet the Winter's Wrath in battle, and hopefully, a battle that should be her last. Were you aware that you were in the presence of royalty?"

_I'm unwittingly disrespecting a _queen_ all this time_? Kunkka thought, as his face turned just as pale as the ice abound him. In an instant, the admiral hung his head low, put his tricorne over his chest and bowed. To his further irritation, Thunderwrath and Boush remained as they were, utterly confused.

"I'm terribly regretful about my manners, Your Majesty." The admiral apologized, his tone sincere. After all, ticking off a local queen while in foreign lands might not be a good idea for everybody's welfare. "I wasn't aware that you were actually royalty, and for that, I'm very sorry for my earlier impertinence."

Queen Ashe looked at Kunkka, her expression as every bit as smug as she could muster. "That would do, grand admiral. Now, what say you we kill Sejuani and get on with your reward?"

Suddenly, Kunkka's features hardened as his mouth turned into an aggravated scowl. "What makes you think I'm here for some sort of reward, Your Majesty? My vessels are not a part of some sort of privateer or bounty hunter fleet, if that's what you're thinking. We're here because we're _stranded, _not because we're after our fortune."

Ashe thought about putting Kunkka in his place, but decided not to, seeing that mercenaries and bounty hunters are a sore spot for him. "Then what do you suggest you get out of assisting us?"

Kunkka thought about his options for a moment, before coming up with, "You're a queen, that means your people probably have control of a shipyard my vessels could use. My flotilla is undersupplied, undermanned and severely damaged. If you'd allow us to make use of a place where my ships could dock and spare us some supplies, we'll do your bidding, Your Majesty."

…

**Nightsilver**

Luna unlatched another glaive before tossing it at her quarry, the boar-riding warrior. To her continued exasperation, the boar rider saw it coming and adeptly swerved her mount to the side, causing the glaive to miss. Luna anticipated this, however, as she already had another glaive prepared to throw.

The boar rider never saw the projectile coming. It struck the boar in his hindquarters, causing both beast and rider to fall to the ground in an inelegant heap. Luna had Nova perform a full stop before unlatching the finishing glaive. She muttered her thanks to her goddess and threw the glaive. To the Moon Rider's surprise, the boar rider quickly stood up on her feet and smashed her glaive in mid-flight with her flail.

Luna smirked. This battle turned out to be just as interesting as she was expecting. Taking another glaive from Nova's side, and with the knowledge that her foe has finally been backed into a corner, Luna prepared to finish the job. Unfortunately, she was unaware that she happened to be in the bluesail flagship. In mere seconds, the Moon Rider found herself beset at all sides by barbarian forces.

Luckily for Luna, her weapons are old relics from her days as a ruthless warlord – they were engineered for mass-slaughter. Luna threw a glaive; it struck down a foe before bouncing onto another, and another, and another.

The barbarians realized that their opponent might not be as helpless as they thought, so they rushed to put an end to Luna's life. The Moon Rider quickly called upon Selemene's wrath to strike down her enemies. In an instant, harmful moonlight descended from the sky, sapping lives from bodies and sowing destruction upon the Moon Rider's foes. After all is done, only Luna and her original target remained.

"Very impressive. Very impressive indeed." The boar rider, in a cringe-inducing act of sarcasm, slowly clapped her gauntleted hands together. "You make for a fine adversary, and yet, I wonder… how is it that I haven't heard of you before?"

Luna smirked. Almost everyone should know her by name for her efforts in the Radiant-Dire conflict, but this woman sounded sincere. "That's because I'm not from around here. What say we skip the pleasantries and get this over with?"

The boar rider laughed. "I was actually hoping you'd say that." She brandished her flail. "Tell whatever deity you worship that Sejuani sends her regards."

Luna said nothing and dismounted. Taking her blessed glaive and her ornate lunar-forged shield, the Moon Rider began striding forwards to Sejuani.

…

**Cladd/Avarosa**

Queen Ashe agreed with Kunkka's request for a shipyard, but first, the Claddish flotilla must help out the Avarosan fleet to drive the Winter's Claw out of Cape Bjorgsen. Then, the queen wasted no time coordinating her men to provide the necessary manpower to move the _Leviathan _around. The original _Leviathan_ crew had trouble instructing the Avarosan replacements how to operate the perplexingly complicated Keenish contraptions and mechanisms, but a few extra hands were all that's necessary anyway. Ashe herself chose to stay onboard the _Leviathan _with her own company of bodyguards as the giant vessel rammed its way further up the Winter's Claw fleet, to locate Sejuani and Luna's position.

Kunkka chose to spend the time directing his Keenfolk marksmen to snipe important targets amidst the enemy longships, while his gunnery crews below fired broadside after broadside into the enemy ranks, and Boush's automated swivel guns took care of the smaller enemy vessels. With a spyglass in hand, Kunkka spotted targets for his crew.

"Steady, steady now." The admiral muttered, watching a crewmember taking aim into an enemy captain he spotted and marked. The Keenish crewmember sucked in a breath and fired. The shot flew wide, missing its mark by a large margin.

"Alright, that's it. I'm not Sharpeye." Deciding that precision marksmanship with a rifle just isn't cut out for him, the crewmember decided to go below to the gun decks and help out the gunnery crew. Kunkka shrugged and peered into his spyglass once more. He found the enemy captain again, but this time with blood pooling out of the frozen arrow sticking out of his torso.

Kunkka looked to his side just in time to see Ashe releasing another arrow from her icy bow. The projectile's flight was true, skewering another enemy officer's throat.

…

"If you don't mind me saying, you sure are one hell of an archer, Your Majesty."

Ashe found Admiral Kunkka looking over the enemy longships with a spyglass. To the distance was the little bearded men he had for crew, trying their very best to hit human-sized targets at least two-hundred meters away.

"You've already said that, I believe." Nocking another arrow, drawing and then releasing it, Ashe made using a bow look somewhat easy. Unfortunately, having been using her bow for quite a while had done well to deplete the queen's arrow reserve. She was now down to eight unenchanted arrows and a single enchanted frost arrow.

"Ugh, you've got any arrows I could use?" The Frost Archer asked the admiral from her position. "My quiver's about to run dry, and I could do a lot of damage at a vantage point like this."

Kunkka chuckled, slightly irritating the queen. "The Claddish Navy had never used bows for two centuries now. Do you know how to use a musket or a rifle?"

Ashe groaned. "Really? Why would I make use of such trivial contraptions when the olden ways are leagues better?"

The admiral removed the spyglass from his eye. He looked at the queen with an incredulous expression. "You remind me a lot of two old comrades of mine. Mirana and Traxex would've loved to meet you, Your Majesty. The three of you share similar mindsets when it comes to choosing a weapon. By the Soul, you even fight alike."

The queen is getting impatient. "While we talk away, a lot of opportunities to do some damage to the Winter's Claw are missed. Do you have any arrows or not?"

Kunkka closed his eyes and sighed. He walked to Ashe's position. "No, but I can help you recycle your arrows. How strong are those?"

Ashe could only gape in disbelief at the admiral's audacity as he casually plucked an arrow from her quiver and examined it. "I don't recognize the type of wood this arrow's made of. Looks like it has… patterns, on it. Heh, strange." The admiral looked at the queen again. "How strong is it?"

"That's a runewood arrow, admiral." Ashe absent-mindedly answered, still in shock. "Runewood arrows are almost always recovered in good condition from fallen enemy soldiers..."

Kunkka nodded, satisfied. "Good," He gave Ashe the arrow back and went back to spotting. "Enemy officer at eleven o'clock, over at that burning bluesail longship, standing over an overturned barrel."

Deciding to vent her frustration at the enemy, Ashe quickly nocked the arrow and fired, but not before seeing the admiral point to the nocked arrow for reasons she didn't know. Like always, an arrow from Ashe found its mark. The officer reeled backwards and fell overboard.

"Well? What are you trying to prove?" Ashe asked, utterly exasperated at how the admiral acted.

Kunkka merely smiled that charming smile of his. "That I'm your new royal arrow dispenser." He pointed at the queen's bow.

Ashe couldn't stop her eyes from widening and her jaw from going slack. The arrow she nocked and released earlier had apparently reappeared right in her hands; with the fresh blood of the officer she killed still oozing from the arrowhead and the top of the shaft.

"As long as I'm watching you fire, you should have an unlimited supply of runewood arrows, Your Majesty." Kunkka took his spyglass and began spotting once more. "Now, on to business: I see an enemy captain to the west southwest. Just below that listing longship and to the side of that tealsail longship."

"On it," Ashe held out an arrow and Kunkka pointed at it. She took a few seconds to spot the captain, but it took her even less to make short work of him. "We could keep doing this until we run out of enemy officers, admiral."

Kunkka shrugged as he scanned the longships for a valid target. "Works for me and Luna." He pointed at the queen's bow once more, and the arrow reappeared.

The pair continued the cycle of hunting down enemy officers, and when the officers were in short supply, the lower-ranking soldiers were made as target practice. Ashe even tried to keep Kunkka on his toes by nocking multiple arrows at once, but she only ever lost three of her eight unenchanted arrows.

After reducing a Winter's Claw longship into a crewless derelict, Ashe now felt spent and decided to conserve her strength for her confrontation with the Winter's Wrath.

"She's all coated up, admiral!" A crewman shouted.

Ashe looked at what Kunkka's crew had done, and found that they had emptied three whole barrels of whale oil onto a nearby Winter's Claw longship. The queen then turned to Kunkka. He too looked like he had seen better days, judging from the bloodstains spattered on his cuirass and the torn sleeves of his greatcoat. "You know, for an arrogant, disrespectful admiral, you're not half-bad when it comes to matters of warfare."

The admiral scoffed in a spirited manner. "I'll take that as a compliment... and believe me, Your Majesty – warfare had been what my life revolved around since my days as a lowly captain." To accentuate his statement, Kunkka casually drew a flare gun from his coat and fired it at the Winter's Claw longship that had just been covered in whale oil by some of his crewmen. The longship promptly burst into flames.

"Well, you certainly look and act the part." Ashe responded, after taking mercy on a burning enemy warrior – swiftly ending his agonized screaming with a swift arrow to the forehead.

"Indeed." Ashe was quick enough to spot the somber expression that crossed Kunkka's features for a split-second. The admiral took a few moments to himself before relocating Ashe's arrow back to her quiver. His eyes widened as he noticed that it was still in flames.

"Is something wrong?" Ashe, noticing the look Kunkka was giving her, asked. Kunkka was about to open his mouth, when Lanaya soundlessly materialized behind the queen and promptly snuffed out the burning fletching. The Templar Assassin gave Kunkka her best 'enjoying yourself?' look before speaking,

"Grand admiral, I've caught sight of the enemy flagship just a couple of nautical miles from our position to the north. Luna had engaged the Winter's Claw leader minutes ago, and I believe they're still at it right now."

Ashe jumped back, surprised at the appearance of the assassin behind her. "By Avarosa, don't do that!"

Kunkka laughed. "She does that to everyone." In an instant, he was back to business. "Great work, Lanaya. Keep watch on Luna, and provide your assistance if necessary."

The admiral turned to Ashe once more. "If you'll excuse me, Your Majesty, I'll try and get this ship moving. You'll have what you wanted, and I'll have a safe place for my flotilla."

After a moment of silence, the queen nodded. "Oh, of course. Don't let me keep you."

…

**Nightsilver**

Luna snaked under an overhead swing from Sejuani's flail. She saw an opening and went for it, tossing the glaive in her hands with enough force to bisect a fully armored soldier.

However, Sejuani merely grabbed hold of the blades with her gauntleted hands, stopping the glaive in mid-flight. Luna could see that her hands were emanating frost as she snatched her weapon from the air.

Sejuani then did a quick spin and threw the glaive back to Luna, with the intention of dealing her a fate that the Moon Rider had inflicted countless of times. However, Luna had drilled herself for just this situation, when should an opponent grab hold of one of her glaives and had the bright idea to use it against her. Her colleagues back at Nightsilver had derided her training as extremely unnecessary to the point of madness, Luna wished that they could see her now. With the inhuman reflexes she was known for, the Nightsilver warrior gracefully copied Sejuani's move, seizing her weapon while in flight.

Luna's move certainly gave Sejuani pause. "I've only ever seen _one_ person that could do that, you know." She spoke, obviously surprised and awed. "Truly, it's a shame that you're fighting for Ashe. The so-called queen is unworthy of your service as a warrior."

The Moon Rider scoffed. "I don't know who this piece-of-shite queen is, and I don't claim to fight for her. I fight for the admiral of the vessels you attacked for no good reason!"

The Winter's Wrath only laughed. "I'm sure your admiral is a piece of shite, too." She put on a horrendous rendition of a Nightsilvian accent.

Luna only shook her head. "Aye, he is. But I'm sure he's a lot better than you." She prepared to sprint for Sejuani, intending to slice her throat open personally, as her usual method of combat seemed counterproductive.

But before Luna could even make a proper move, Bristle had already escaped from Nova's grasp and tackled the Moon Rider to the ground. The boar then used his tusks to knock the weapon out of her hands before using his hooves to attempt to maul her to submission. Luna used her shield to try and put some distance between herself and the enraged beast, but she doesn't have the strength to do so. She looked to the side and found that Sejuani had already engaged Nova in combat.

Knowing that there's nothing she could do as the beast pinned her to the ground, Luna kept blocking until a third party could (hopefully) get to her. Fortunately for her, she wasn't alone anymore.

The boar reeled back, a psi-blade imbedded to his side. He turned to the source of the blade but he found itself assailed by more projectiles flying his way. The animal promptly retreated back to his owner.

Lanaya materialized into view. "I'd have expected this outcome." She took Luna by the shoulder and pulled her up. "You got too carried away by an opponent to take stock of your surroundings."

"Where the bloody hell have you been?" Luna asked, looking over her wounds. "We could've taken her down together!"

"You rode off to Temple-knows-where and I had to jump from longship to longship just to find you," Lanaya stated. "I've alerted Kunkka and the queen to Sejuani's position. The _Leviathan _should be here in a few minutes."

Luna huffed. "Just _who_ is this queen, anyway?"

Lanaya shrugged. "Some archer named Ashe. She should remind you of your princess, or Traxex."

"Can't wait to meet Her Majesty." The Nightsilvian sarcastically remarked. "Now let's gut this boar-riding amateur and put her head on a pike. Nova could have the rest of her remains."

"Manners, Luna." Lanaya mock chided as she unleashed her psi-blades. "Manners."

The two Heroes made their move to end Sejuani's life, but she wasn't there anymore, and Nova is lying down on one corner, battered and unconscious. In Sejuani and Bristle's place, however, came a horde of Winter's Claw soldiers rappelling down their own vessels, coming to reclaim their flagship. At the front of the barbarians is the biggest (and angriest) man that the Luna and Lanaya had ever seen, bar none. Not even Sven or King Ostarion came close to reaching his stature.

"My name is Olaf," He rumbled, brandishing twin bloodstained axes. "And I like—"

"Warm hugs?" Lanaya nonchalantly quipped.

The barbarian didn't take the insult to his masculinity lightly. "No, lass. WARM BLOOD!" He charged forwards with his men.

Luna looked at Nova's unconscious form, then to the charging horde of berserkers and finally, to Lanaya beside her.

"Shite." She muttered.

…

**Cladd/Avarosa**

With one gloved hand on a rope, Kunkka descended from the _Leviathan_ and into the bluesail flagship. Beside him are Thunderwrath and Boush, with both looking a little battle-worn but still as vigilant as before. Behind him are the best soldiers under his command, intermingled with Queen Ashe and her own soldiers.

It was a mess on the enemy flagship's deck. Lifeless Winter's Claw warriors lay scattered and mangled across virtually all areas of the deck, the foremast looked all too ready to snap in two after a stray glaive had taken out a large portion of it, some of the sails were ripped off and blood decorated the entirety of the longship.

At the middle of the deck are Lanaya and Luna, still trying to hold off a few Winter's Claw stragglers. They look absolutely _exhausted_, and appeared that they might need assistance in finishing off the eighteen last barbarians. One of them was clashing his blades with Luna, and by the looks of things, he's got the upper hand. Thunderwrath put an end to that by summoning the Omniscient One's healing rays to invigorate the Nightsilvian and set the barbarian alight with searing flames.

Lanaya, upon seeing her reinforcements arrive, threw one last psi-blade at a Winter's Claw warrior before disappearing from sight. Queen Ashe and her cadre of precision marksmen made pincushions of the exhausted hostile forces, finally securing the Winter's Claw flagship under firm Avarosan control.

The Templar Assassin reappeared next to Kunkka. The admiral was about to open his mouth, but Lanaya beat him to it, "Before you ask, no. I'm not injured. But Luna and her mount are. Thunderwrath might want to see to them."

Kunkka closed his mouth and nodded. "Straight to the point, like always. Now—"

Ashe shoved her way to the two Heroes. She turned to Lanaya with wide, frantic eyes. "Where's Sejuani? Is she down here with these corpses?" She scanned the bodies on the ground but found no sign of the Winter's Wrath. However, she did find a grievously wounded Olaf about to stand up, clutching a fractured axe in one bloody hand. The queen promptly nocked her last frost arrow and froze the Berserker solid.

Lanaya didn't even look at Olaf. She focused on Ashe and shook her head tiredly. "She gave us the slip. I'm sorry."

Ashe let her shoulders sag. "No matter. This area is hundreds of miles of open, glacier-filled sea. She can't—"

"My queen! Sejuani's fleet is retreating!" Captain Dagvard reported over at the ship's portside. He lifted his shield and banged his mace to it repeatedly. "They're hoisting up their sails and turning tail! Cape Bjorgsen belongs to the Avarosa!"

A cheer from the Avarosans rang out. Weapons were hoisted skyward, tankards of 'field ale' were raised and helmets were flung into the air. But Ashe was not in the mood for revelries. Sejuani is still on the loose – injured from her defeat, but still as dangerous as before.

The queen sighed, ordered some of her men to secure any prisoners and made her way to Admiral Kunkka, whom had been dragged off by his first mate to have a personal conference with the rest of his men back at his personal vessel.

…

"The _Leviathan's_ starboard side is the least damaged; most of the cannons are still operational there." Volkov reported. "If we turn the right side of the ship to the retreating bluesail longships, we could hit them with one last incendiary broadside, and Sir Boush's swivels could probably take three or more shots at them."

"We're almost out of fire shells," Kunkka stated. "We could find better uses for our munitions than trying to further injure a defeated adversary. We're stuck in a foreign land where the best the locals had to offer in maritime warfare is a really long vessel designed for the frozen hinterlands. There's no telling when we could get a resupply with proper munitions, but—"

The admiral was interrupted when Queen Ashe and her honor guard walked in. "I trust that we're not interrupting something important?"

Volkov put on his best smile – the one he uses when in the presence of royals. "Not at all, Your Majesty. The grand admiral and his men are just discussing some… logistics. Since our scrap with the bluesails, we're now down to sixty percent of our munitions."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Some of our suppliers from Piltover could bring you a steady supply of fire shells." Ashe said. "I must say, I thought fire shells are just a very recent invention – available only in small numbers. However did you acquire them in such large numbers?"

Kunkka's eyes were wide at the queen's words. "Err, um… ah, we'll talk about that later. What is it that you wanted, Your Majesty?"

The queen eyed the admiral questionably before saying, "You kept your end of the bargain by securing Cape Bjorgsen with my forces. Even if we haven't accomplished our original objective of putting Sejuani down under, with the capture of such a high-ranking Winter's Claw warrior such as Olaf the Berserker, I'm willing to keep _my _end of the bargain."

Ashe took a piece of weathered document handed to her by one of her guardsmen. She walked to the desk Kunkka and his men are using to support their plans on paper. The queen rolled the document over and revealed it to be a map of some sort.

"This is Port Narfasker," She jabbed a dagger on a blue dot on the map. "It's the closest seaport to the Avarosan capital of Rakelstake. After you've secured your bearings, I've another favor to ask you, if it's alright with you and your men."

Kunkka looked to his crew. Volkov and most seemed alright with the queen, if still slightly suspicious of her, and Thunderwrath, Boush and Lanaya had earlier stated that whatever was his choice, they'll learn to live with it. The only problem now is Luna, who should be down at the cargo hold, tending to her injured friend.

_Nothing ventured, nothing gained,_ Kunkka thought. "Ask away, Your Majesty."

"The reason I chose Narfasker as your dockyard is that I wanted you to come to our palace at Rakelstake to… enlighten me, of your situation here in Freljord." Ashe said, never betraying any unsavory motives. "You're in my people's lands. I think it's reasonable that I have knowledge of your dealings here."

The admiral took a moment to think, pondering over his options. It took him merely five seconds to conclude that the best option for all parties involved is to agree with Queen Ashe's request. "As Her Majesty wishes, it shall be this admiral's duty to obey."

For a moment, Ashe neglected to remember Kunkka's earlier impudence. _I wonder where he came from?_ She asked herself. _He'd make for a good fleet commander. _

"My thanks… grand admiral. We'll meet again at Rakelstake. Farewell." The queen smiled for the first time this day, and promptly left the Claddsmen to their own devices.

After the queen left, Volkov patted his old friend in the shoulderplate. Kunkka winced in pain, but Volkov, as typical, ignored it. "Who'd have thought that the first ally we'd make in this frozen wastes is the _queen_ of the frozen wastes herself? I can see it now… our coffers would be full even before the year's out."

Kunkka shook his head. "We didn't come here looking to get rich, Feodor; we're not mercenaries. And I think it's best if we don't take Queen Ashe's hospitality for granted – we can't risk her turning against us. Remember, as far as we know, she's the only person in this place we could put a modicum of our trust on."

"You worry too much," Volkov mock chided, letting his hand fall from Kunkka's wounded shoulder. "Who knows, if you got on with this queen well enough, you might literally end up as a _king_."

"That's not how it works, you know." Kunkka calmly replied. "And I'd really rather just find our way back to Wellington. I'm not in the mood to go around and _court_ people I barely know, for the Soul's sake."

Volkov snorted, crossing his arms as he walked out of the cabin. "Whatever works for you, sir. Have a good night." Kunkka's first mate disappeared behind the door, leaving the admiral by himself.

Kunkka sighed and hung his battle-worn coat on a peg attached to the wall. He never bothered to remove his bloodstained cuirass as he sat down on a chair, put his feet up a table, pulled his tricorne over his eyes and soundlessly drifted off into sleep.

…

**?**

She could end his life right now. After a few moments of waiting, the remaining crew had left the room the admiral was in, supposedly to tend to themselves and to the new Avarosan crewmembers they were forced to work with.

He looked so defenseless in his rest, despite the battered cuirass he wore over his chest, and the sheathed sword still attached to his side. She figured that once she had dealt with the admiral, she would set her sights back to her original target – the Omniknight. She had to be extra careful this time, as she noticed that the knight caught a brief glimpse of her while he was awakening. _  
_

Alas, her curiosity at her new surroundings intrigued her, for she had never travelled this far from the Veil for any reason. She stayed her blade for now; noiselessly blending back into the shadows like the day she infiltrated the _Leviathan_ with everyone being none the wiser. Even the Templar Assassin, whom she considered the sharpest of them all, had probably had no idea of her presence in the admiral's vessel. _What an amateur, _she thought._  
_

She wondered if she could neglect her duty to the Sisters if only for a moment. After all, this place seemed _interesting_.

* * *

Bluesails: Winter's Claw (Sejuani)

Tealsails: Avarosa (Ashe)

It's about time I start taking this story seriously.

On an unrelated side note, I find the teachings of Charles Darwin very confusing.


	4. Enter the Veil

**Demacia**

"I don't know how you two manage to stay warm out here. The coldest winter back home is like a mild summer in Freljord."

Quinn laughed. "You'll get used to it after a few months, commander. As do the men."

Garen put on a frosty smile behind the thick blue scarf that concealed his neck and the lower part of his head. He tried his best to look completely fine with the cold, but his fellow Demacian isn't buying it. "I could only hope. I'm getting tired of waking up in the middle of the night with icicles sticking out of my mouth."

The pathfinder grinned. "Well, that's one more thing that I learned about the famous Garen Crownguard, the Might of Demacia who drools in his sleep."

The commander of the Dauntless Vanguard rubbed the back of his neck. "That's just between you, me and Luxxana. It's a good thing I'm in charge of promoting and demoting troops, because if word of this conversation gets out in the streets," Garen's voice is dead serious, but the amused glint in his eyes betrayed him. "I'd know a particularly swellheaded scout to demote."

Quinn put on a faux-distraught voice. "Oh, no… not my nifty lieutenant rank! I've got a family and a very lazy eagle to feed!"

The two Demacians laughed, appreciating the moments when they were not knee-deep in angry barbarians and merely walking around Rakelstake's streets, doing nothing but visit the notable sights of the city and talk the early Monday hours away. Unfortunately, Quinn had been keeping down something she needed to report to Garen hours earlier,

"By the way, me and Val just did a reconnaissance run earlier today. Like usual, the nearest concentration of Winter's Claw forces are seventy-four kilometers northwest of Rakelstake's outskirts. For now, they look like they're happy with staying put."

"Anything else you two found?" The commander asked, somewhat disappointed that his friendly conversation with the best markswoman in his command shifted back to discussing warfare. "Something that doesn't involve the reason why we're in Freljord in the first place?"

Quinn noticed immediately. Fortunately, she did have a small piece of news that isn't about the Freljordian civil conflict.

"Well, rumors in the streets tell something about a transcontinental flotilla docking in Port Narfasker weeks ago." She shifted on her feet uncomfortably. "I went there myself to check it out, but the place is off-limits to anyone but the housecarls. Now, there's more rumors about a foreign admiral that should be visiting Queen Ashe's palace later today, which are true, by the way."

Now that was a piece of news that caught Garen's attention. "Really? Have you seen how this admiral looked like, and what company is he bringing?"

Quinn tried her best to look offended. "Are you kidding me? I dressed up in plainclothes and checked inside the inn him and his men were staying a kilometer west of Rakelstake. I even sketched a picture of him while he told all sorts of stories from where he came from." The pathfinder went down on one knee on the snowy ground and took out her pack. A few seconds after, she fished out a small, scruffy field journal from the pack. She had to stand on her toes just so she could reach the commander's height. "See?"

Garen examined the hand-drawn picture of a man clad in a navy officer's uniform unlike most of the city-states' designs. His hair flowed back from his head, on which a mariner-style tricorne hat rested upon. There was a subtle X-shaped scar on his forehead and on his mouth is a self-assured, confident grin (which is surrounded by a rather magnificent-looking beard). The man's most striking features were his eyes – they look like they've been regularly seeing all manner of things that most men would rather forget about in earnest.

"I'm impressed," Garen said, pulling his scarf down and making a half-smile at Quinn. "Very impressed, indeed. However, this looks a little _too_ _detailed_ to be done just by memory alone. How long did this sketch take you?"

Quinn suddenly found her boots to be very interesting to look at. "I… I uh, sort of— _talked_ with this admiral already." She fumbled inelegantly. "More like, I asked him to stand still for a few minutes while I draw his features."

Garen chuckled, drawing a blush from Quinn. "However did you convince the admiral to do just that?"

"Um, I told him that I was an amateur artist looking to improve my sketching skills by drawing his face. He smiled… and then he agreed, saying that he couldn't possibly refuse a request from such a striking young lady such as me." The pathfinder looked further down on the ground, trying to hide the further reddening of her cheeks from her commanding officer. "To be fair, I _am _an amateur artist looking to improve my sketching skills."

"This admiral sounds like he has a way with words," Garen said, nodding slowly while smothering the roaring laughter that should've escaped his mouth. "You've already drawn a picture of him. I'll be disappointed if you don't know his name."

"Well, uh…" Realizing that she was stammering once more, Quinn decided to remove the foot in her mouth and speak more clearly. _I'm lucky Garen is in a good mood today, _she thought.

"No, I don't know his name." She concisely answered. "I'm still rather embarrassed about what he said to me in front of everyone in the inn, so I left the establishment soon after I finished the sketch."

Deciding to change the subject to save Quinn from further discomfiture, the commander asked, "Is he alone, though? Who did he keep for company and protection? Can you tell where he's from?"

"A curious mix of foreigners and Avarosan sailors," Quinn answered. "He's brought a whole lot of people to the inn, so I can't say for sure on who he's going to bring to Rakelstake. And if I went with his choice of clothes and his mannerisms, I'd say he's one of us – a lost Demacian admiral coming back from a failed expedition to the other continents." The pathfinder shook her head and sighed. "But, his accent sounded nothing like ours. I'd say maybe… Piltovian? Or maybe even upper-class Bilgewa—"

"Well, hello!" A cheery voice interrupted the pathfinder. Both Garen and Quinn turned their heads to see the owner of the voice.

Garen could barely keep a straight face on. It was the man in Quinn's journal, outfitted in a formalized admiral's uniform with a feathered tricorne hat over his head and ceremonial rapier strapped to his side. The commander looked to his side just in time to see Quinn's face pale over in shock.

…

**Cladd**

After spending nearly three hours wandering around in Rakelstake's animated, snow-filled outskirts looking for the queen's residence, Thunderwrath decided to speak up. By pure chance, Lanaya had decided to do so in the exact same moment.

"We're going in circles," They both spoke in unison. The Omniknight and the Templar Assassin looked over each other in shock before composing themselves.

Thunderwrath coughed. "I think I've seen this stall before. That street sign looked familiar as well."

"Yeah, that's the same tavern we've crossed hours ago," Volkov observed. "We've been wasting our time for the past three hours now, in case nobody's noticed yet."

"I suggest we go up to someone and ask for directions," Lanaya recommended. "I'm surprised the All-Knowing One hasn't revealed to us our path yet." She said with derision.

"That's likely because the Hidden Ones are hiding it from us." Thunderwrath snidely countered, drawing snicker from Volkov.

Kunkka had enough. "Right, right, don't kill each other now. I'll go and ask the first person we encounter for the queen's palace." The admiral saw no reason to end his tour of Rakelstake. _Those three hours wandering around were time well spent_, he thought. _I've never been to any cities other than Wellington before…_

"Well, hello!" He flashed a smile as he cheerily called out to a pair of strange-looking civilians. The first one that came into view – a brown-haired man dressed in a blue and gray overcoat with a blue scarf over his neck – was as solidly built as an oak tree. He towered over the admiral, and even Thunderwrath was shorter than the man by a few inches, and strapped to his back is an ornately decorated greatsword, which is rather strange for a civilian to possess.

The second person is a purple-haired woman of considerably less bulk, dressed in field winter clothes – like that of a frontierswoman. She had piercing light brown eyes that seemed more perceptive than even Lanaya's, had a light infantryman's crossbow decorated with eagle-like features clipped to her belt and some sort of bracer designed for handling large predatory birds strapped securely to her right arm.

"Greetings. I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but you see, I'm here in Rakelstake for an appointment with Queen Ashe of Freljord." With practiced ease, the admiral talked in a nobleman's brogue, trying to pretend to be a clueless, intolerably pompous foreigner so that the two civilians would try and get rid of him with utmost haste by pointing him at the right direction. "If you would please, would you kindly direct us to Her Majesty's palace?"

"That's not your real accent." The woman simply said, crossing her arms.

_Ah, bollocks._ "Eh… pardon me?" Kunkka's accent briefly relapsed back into his usual, rougher-sounding one. "W-what did you—"

"Both of us know who you are, already. My friend here even more so. Don't you remember her?" The man was holding back laughter, Kunkka observed.

The admiral was flabbergasted. "Why… I _have not_ set foot in this city before, what makes you think that I've already made acquaintances with…" It was then that the memories from the inn he and the other checked in struck Kunkka with all the bluntness of Roshan's almighty fist.

The woman elbowed the man, who didn't even flinch as he continued trying his earnest to look serious. "Garen, _please_. I'm seriously starting to regret going out in the streets without Valor."

The admiral was shocked out of his mind upon hearing the woman's voice for the second time. It's definitely _her – _that young woman from the inn_ – _the 'amateur artist' whom had offered to do a sketch of his face on that Thursday night. Kunkka had only ever agreed to that ridiculous request just because the woman asked rather nicely, and more importantly because he'd draw less attention from the locals by simply getting it over with rather than bluntly refusing. In the end, though, the admiral still enjoyed having his features drawn – even as the woman started getting comically red-faced as he overwhelmed her with all the typical gentlemanly compliments he could think of.

"Oh, it's you!" Kunkka dropped the accent and his frown, replacing them with an amiable grin. "The illustrator I lent a bit of my time to. I forgot to say my thanks for your time that night because you suddenly bolted off before I could."

The two civilians looked at Kunkka before turning around, their backs to the admiral and his company. They conferred to each other for a few moments before returning, their expressions now serious.

"We'll take you to Rakelstake palace," The man said. "But the two of us will have to come with you to Queen Ashe. After all, it should be my business to discuss matters with you just as the queen would, being the leader of the representatives to Demacia here in Freljord, and I'd rather take someone with me to the palace."

"I'm not really an artist, admiral." The woman said, looking rather guilty. "Well, sketching things isn't my actual job, anyway. I drew that picture of yours so I could show it to my superior," She jabbed the man with her elbow again. "Which is this guy."

Kunkka was even more confused. "Then what are you two? Diplomats? Ambassadors?" His tone took a subtle venomous tone. "Spies or assassins?"

Thunderwrath, upon hearing the last two words, took a combat-ready stance. Lanaya was even quicker, having already drawn two psi-blades threateningly. Volkov had a pistol trained downrange and Kunkka merely crossed his arms and did his best to provide his most unwelcoming glare.

To their credit, the two strangers never reacted with fear or surprise, as if they've already seen combat in person a multitude of times already.

"We're both soldiers from one of the city-states, sent to assist Queen Ashe in securing her rule over Freljord." The man casually answered, looking over Thunderwrath and Lanaya. "I had to do diplomat duties in Piltover once – when our own Iron Ambassador was struck down by a bad case of flu – so yes, you could call us diplomats as well."

The man gestured to himself with a burly gloved hand. "I'm Captain Garen Crownguard, head and commander of the Dauntless Vanguard." The commander then gestured to the woman beside him. "And my feisty colleague over here is Second Lieutenant Quinn of the Demacian Pathfinders. It's a pleasure to meet you… ah,"

"This is Grand Admiral Kunkka, of the New Claddish Armada, and of House Tresham." Volkov suddenly spoke up and put himself between Kunkka and the two soldiers. "It's a name I'm sure you know well." He leaned in closer to Garen. "And just between you, me and _a lot_ of other folks, his name isn't actually—"

"Whoa there, Feodor." The admiral interrupted his first mate, putting an affable, yet firm hand on the man's shoulder. "If a _queen _doesn't know us by name or title, then I'm sure nobody in this land even knew an inkling of who we are. So why don't we just keep a low profile and let _me_ do the talking?"

Volkov shrugged and walked back to his position near Thunderwrath and Lanaya, whom had eased their stances back to normal. "So you say, sir."

The admiral cleared his throat. "Let's do this again, shall we?" He held out a hand for Garen to take. "You two could just call me Kunkka, or admiral." Garen turned to look at Quinn before slowly shaking the admiral's outstretched hand.

Kunkka then respectively gestured to Volkov, Thunderwrath and Lanaya – the three people he had with him today. "And this is my executive officer Feodor Volkov. This is Purist Thunderwrath, a member of the Knights of the Omniscient Order, and finally, this is Lanaya. She is an assassin in service to the Hidden Temple."

"Just Lanaya?" Quinn blurted out before she could stop herself.

"It's just Lanaya, I'm afraid." Kunkka answered, smirking at the look the Templar Assassin was giving him. "The rest is a secret."

"All of this banter is well and good, but if the two of you just_ need _to come with us, we should get moving soon." Thunderwrath cut in. "We shouldn't keep the queen waiting."

…

**Demacia**

"Wait, aren't you a little bit early?" Garen asked, before the four foreigners could get moving again. "One of my… _sources,_ told me that you were supposed to visit Rakelstake a little later this day – late in the afternoon, to be more precise."

Quinn was about to jab Garen with her elbow again, but she halted when she realized that he covered for her.

The admiral nodded. "Your source must've been really good at his job. Yes, we're scheduled to arrive in the afternoon, but matters in the dockyard couldn't get anymore _boring_ for me, so I decided to take anyone willing to come with me and give the queen a surprise visit."

"If you hadn't dragged me along, you would've noticed that I said I _didn't_ want to come along with Thunderwrath around." The pathfinder's sharp ears picked up Lanaya's inaudible mutterings.

Garen eyed the admiral and his company over. The admiral might not look it at first glance, but there's more than a few scars – both old and fresh – marring the surface of his face. The executive officer looked like he was mauled by a cougar, the knight's chestplate had a nasty-looking rupture over its otherwise undamaged surface and the assassin just looked plain _dangerous. _The foreigners definitely had more than their fair share of the horrors of war, Garen thought.

The commander sighed and pulled up his scarf. Looking at Quinn, he said, "Let's go, lieutenant. We'll see to it that the grand admiral and his company get to see Ashe."

The pathfinder paid one last glance at the foreigners before falling into step with her commanding officer. The four foreigners closely followed, their eyes darting and looking all over their surroundings. The people of Rakelstake, seeing two distinguished Demacian soldiers accompanied by four armed foreigners, parted to the sides like turbulent waters in the path of an incoming cruiser.

…

**Hidden Temple/Demacia**

After spending three-quarters of an hour navigating the snowy streets of Rakelstake, the six-man group suddenly took a sharp right turn and had to navigate their way through a heavily crowded marketplace. After spending a few minutes finding their way out of the mass of consumers and shopkeepers, the group reformed themselves and Lanaya found herself uneasily walking adjacent to Captain Garen.

While they walked, the assassin had already envisaged no less than seventeen scenarios in which the two Demacians would suddenly attack her group for one reason or another, and had accordingly made appropriate (read: violent) solutions to those scenarios. Of course, fifteen of those seventeen solutions always involved Thunderwrath getting himself killed in one stupid way or another.

_An insignificant sacrifice, _Lanaya thought. _This whole endeavor would fare a lot better without his preaching. It's a shame that the thickheaded admiral couldn't see that._

The Templar Assassin then spared a look at the admiral. He was conversing amiably with Lieutenant Quinn, putting on his usual attitude when it came to talking to women. Through Lanaya's many observations on the admiral, she knew that Kunkka is an undeniable master when it comes to manipulating people with words, and right now, he's using that silver tongue of his to compliment and flirt his way into securing an ally within the Demacian Pathfinders.

Kunkka was most certainly just looking to acquire as many allies and advantages he could get in a land he was foreign and unfamiliar to, and for that, Lanaya pitied the poor girl. This very same tactic is how the admiral famously secured a well-founded military alliance between the Claddish Kingdom and the Nightsilver Woods – by making friends with the woman in charge of Nightsilver, namely Princess Mirana, and working his way up to an offer of a mutually advantageous coalition of Nightsilvian and Claddish arms. There's even talk that the admiral and the princess are more than just good friends, but given the fact that Kunkka rarely ever set foot outside his flagship after the Radiant-Dire conflict, and that Mirana had literally legions of desperate suitors from across the land, this is very unlikely.

Fortunately for the Servants of the Hidden Temple, Lanaya is all but immune from Kunkka's attempts at creating a mole for the Claddish Navy within the Temple's ranks. She'd sooner declare her undying love for Thunderwrath and the All-Knowing One before she'd even consider letting Kunkka warm up to her.

When realization struck her, Lanaya was forced to halt her steps. _Why did my mind just cross that thought? _

To her further irritation, Garen also stopped walking. "Something bothering you?" He asked. "We've just passed by Laxa Square, we're almost to the palace. It's a lot warmer in there than out here."

Lanaya merely paid the Demacian an unfriendly glance, pulled her hood down and kept moving.

Garen sighed and kept up with her. "You haven't said anything so far, you know." He said, ignoring the borderline hostile look the assassin was giving him.

The captain glanced to his side to Kunkka and Quinn before returning to regard Lanaya. "The admiral's already extracted a lot of information from my lieutenant by the looks of things – you've got us by a disadvantage, I'm afraid. Would you care to answer a few questions of my own?"

One of Lanaya's eyes involuntarily twitched. "Why would you ask _me?_ Like you said, I haven't said anything until now; that should clue you in that I'm _not_ in the mood to make any pleasantries with anyone. Thunderwrath should be more than willing to answer your questions."

To the Templar Assassin's shock, the captain didn't even get fazed by her belligerent attitude towards him. "I've already asked the knight a couple of questions," He said, matter-of-factly. "And no, he's not even willing to share a little bit of information like how you put it. The executive officer seemed like he'd lie about a lot of things for his own benefit, and the admiral looks like he'll be busy for quite a while. And that leaves…"

"Myself." Lanaya finished for the captain.

Garen smirked, though his mouth is hidden beneath his scarf. "Precisely."

The Templar Assassin could simply block out and ignore the captain, but she knew that he'd keep pestering her until she decides to indulge him. "If answering a few of your questions would get you to leave me alone, then by all means, what do you need to know?"

Wiping the satisfied smirk from his face, the captain spoke, "First of all, none of you spoke in any of the accents that would mark you as natives to Valoran, so I'm taking a guess that you're all from a different continent altogether, and if so, what is it called?"

"The four of us are from two different continents," Lanaya answered in a monotone. "Kunkka, Volkov and I are from the region of Vahlen, and Thunderwrath is from Lebedelle. If you want to be more specific, then Kunkka and Volkov are from the Trembling Isles, Thunderwrath is from Emauracus and I'm from somewhere you aren't supposed to find out in your lifetime."

Garen nodded. "Do the four of you serve under a nation's banner?"

Lanaya tilted her head to Garen's side. "The admiral and his first mate serve under King Frederick the Fourteenth, of the Claddish Kingdom. Thunderwrath and I do not serve any sort of nation, but we do operate under two contrasting orders with fundamental beliefs incompatible with coexistence with each other."

The captain raised a curious brow. "And why is that?"

"Because Thunderwrath's wretched order of holier-than-thou white knights worships a god that's aptly named as the Omniscience, and because _I_ serve a Temple that'd rather keep its secrets concealed and to itself." Lanaya resentfully informed Garen. "With those facts in mind, I trust that you'd be able to figure things out on your own. Thunderwrath and I should be at each other's throats right now, but Kunkka's right in the middle."

"But you don't seem to actively try and get behind the admiral's back and assassinate the knight while everyone's unaware, do you not?" Garen said, looking briefly over to Thunderwrath's position near Volkov then back to Lanaya, locking his eyes with hers. "You see him as something of an enemy, and yet, you stay your blades. Huh, you remind me a lot of someone I know." He turned his sights back into the horizon; seemingly already satisfied with the answers the assassin had given him.

However, upon hearing his last sentence, Lanaya felt a sudden burst of curiosity directed at the captain. She looked to him, her eyes glinting with inquisitiveness. "And who would that someone be, captain?"

"Ah, erm… it's something I'd really rather 'conceal and keep to myself', Lanaya." Garen awkwardly answered. "Being a fellow keeper of secrets, I trust that you understand."

Lanaya should've felt annoyed at the Demacian's use of her name, but strangely, she actually felt somewhat _pleased_ that someone new made use of it without quaking in fear of her. "I'm sure she's wonderful." The assassin took an offhand guess.

Lanaya heard no further response from Garen, but she noticed the slight broadening of his eyes.

…

**Avarosa**

King Tryndamere of Freljord observed Olaf the Berserker's frozen state with an amused expression plastered on his face. Being encased in enchanted ice and from inside his heavily secured containment cell, Olaf looked completely harmless. It was a sight just as rare as seeing the Barbarian King out of battle and inside the safety of his Rakelstake palace while somewhere in the Gufuskalar battlefront, his forces regularly traded blows with Winter's Claw forces.

"Those two women, the ones called Lanaya and Luna managed to subdue the Berserker – grievously injure him, even." Ashe faintly spoke. "Kunkka was fortunate to have such powerful individuals under his command."

"I could only hope that he doesn't direct the might of his forces against us while our backs are turned." Tryndamere gruffly said. Ashe had already told him how the foreigners assisted the Avarosan fleet in securing Cape Bjorgsen from Sejuani's naval forces a week ago, but nevertheless, the king had viewed the admiral with suspicion, since he hasn't revealed as to why his flotilla is in Freljord as of yet.

"He was intolerably rude to me thereafter, but he did save my life, husband. Once I revealed that I'm more important than he thought I was, he actually had the courage to swallow his pride and apologize earnestly. When he arrives here in the afternoon, I'm quite sure you'll like him." Ashe assured with a small smile. "His quirks and mannerisms are a refreshing change to how people usually treat royalty."

"Oh?" Tryndamere looked at his wife. "Tell me, how does this admiral treat you, then?"

Ashe was about to answer, when an Avarosan soldier came running with a panicked look on his face. His helmet is strapped loosely to his belt and he looked like he sprinted for all his worth trying to get to the king and queen.

"Your Majesties…!" He half-spoke, half-panted. "Word on the street is that Grand Admiral Kunkka and his retinue are making their way to your palace at this very moment! Last I've heard, they've just passed Laxa Square, they're—"

Ashe was already on high alert. "We must waste no time then. Trynd, we need to prepare the palace for the admiral's arrival. Soldier, besides the admiral himself, how many people are we dealing with here?"

The soldier paused to inhale a lungful of air. "The admiral had five people with him, my queen. The Demacians recognized the two of them as Captain Crownguard and Lieutenant Quinn. They're both out of uniform, though."

The queen nodded slowly. "I guess it wouldn't be a surprise that Garen would want to involve himself and his loyal eagle-tamer in this." She muttered to herself before turning to her husband. "You'll just have to see the admiral for yourself, Trynd."

The king smirked, flexing his right arm. "I've got a really firm handshake coming his way…"

Ashe sighed. "Do you want that right lung of yours punctured too? I'll make your wounds symmetrical for you, if you keep trying to turn guests that I invite away."

As much as Tryndamere would like to tousle with his wife, he had to concede. After all, the palace is a colossal testament to the elegance and robustness of Ice Dervish architectural engineering, and it'd be a shame if the edifice's interiors could only be viewed by the king, the queen, their housecarls and guards, the servants and no one else.

"Alright, alright," The king said, throwing his arms up slowly, as to not brush his wound the wrong way. "Soldier, tell the servants to prepare the palace for guests," He told the soldier. "Head down to the nearest tavern before you report back to your barracks once you're done. That should be an appropriate reward for your troubles."

…

**The Veil**

_I have no words…_

That was the thought that ran through Mortred's head the moment she stepped foot in Rakelstake. Once she had heard of the admiral's planned departure from the ship after weeks of inactivity, the Phantom Assassin was quick to utilize the opportunity to slip outside of the _Leviathan _and see the outside world... and to see if the Omniknight could be assassinated.

The Phantom Assassin didn't even try to hide herself as she traversed the snowy, people-filled outskirts of the Avarosan capital. _This is _so _different from the Veil,_ she thought. With her curiosity towards the Freljordian city clouding her judgement, Mortred aimlessly wandered around town, not taking stock of the stares from the people directed at her very strange complexion and the nasty-looking blade clipped to her side.

Mortred strolled across the streets, looking over the sights of Rakelstake. The city was practically writhing with activity – the Veil assassin wasn't used to being near so many people at once. Stalls housing merchants peddled their goods, children played games in the streets and frolicked in the snow, people carried freshly-chopped firewood into their homes and tiny embers flew from the windows of the smithies, combined with the resounding _clangs_ of a hammer striking steel.

In fact, Mortred was so absorbed into her surroundings, that she didn't notice a young woman approaching her until it was too late. The Veil assassin only staggered due to her inattention, but the woman was knocked to the snow-filled ground on her rear.

"Ah!" The woman cried out. Mortred nearly went with her instincts and _killed_ the woman right then and there, but with practiced ease, she reformed herself enough to look at what she had done.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman looked about to be in her early or mid twenties, was dressed in a blue and gray overcoat and had some sort of staff strapped to her back.

"Oh, I'm _sooo_ sorry!" The woman blurted out upon propping herself up. "I didn't notice you were there! You were just so… _blurry, _and… how did your skin end up like _that_?" In a moment, the woman's expression turned from that of panicky fear, to that of enthusiastic inquisitiveness as she examined Mortred's features.

The Veil assassin's mind had resorted to turn blank. It failed to provide her with anything she could do in the wake of her situation. So as her response, she stayed silent as the woman looked her over with utmost interest.

"I don't think I've seen anyone like you before, especially in Rakelstake. Where did you come from? Can you tell me your name? What brings you to Rakelstake?" In swift succession, the woman asked. She continued asking more questions until her eyes landed on the blade on Mortred's hip and gasped at the sight of it. "Wow… I somehow didn't see that on you until now. You must be from one of the city-states, looking to pledge your services to Queen Ashe as a soldier! Is that correct?"

The Veil assassin finally summoned the courage to talk. "I… I don't know what you're talking about. I was just passing by, to be honest. I don't even know what is this place called."

The woman smiled. "Well, you're in Rakelstake – the Avarosan capital. Since you already look like you could handle yourself, why not be part of Freljord's history and enlist with the Avarosan auxiliaries? You could call me Luxxana, by the way. Or Lux, if you'd like to be less than formal."

Mortred, utterly confused, merely nodded. She knew not of what she's getting into, but she knew she couldn't just stick a dagger into the woman's throat right in the middle of the street, in front of several people. It was neither the time nor the place.

Before the Veil assassin could make another move, Lux had already grabbed her by a bracer and giddily dragged her off to Oracle-knows-where. _Hopefully a dark alley,_ Mortred thought, idly brushing her fingers through the grip of one of her hidden daggers.

…

**Emauracus**

Once the group had reached the entrance to the Rakelstake palace, the admiral and his three fellow comrades (though Lanaya wouldn't admit it even if it killed her) were awestruck by the edifice's sheer size, which was coupled with its foreboding, fortress-like appearance. If Thunderwrath had not personally seen Queen Ashe before, he'd have assumed that she was some sort of Krobelus-like figure, ready to sow terror and instill fear amongst her subjects.

"Wow, you guys should've at least heard about Queen Ashe's palace. Even people from across the continents had read news articles about it." Quinn said to Kunkka, who continued to gape at the towering structure. "It was constructed by the Ice Dervish tribe not long ago. The Avarosans now make use of it."

"It used to be a military citadel, actually," Garen informed. "It should only take about a few hours before it could be reconverted from a royal palace and back into a heavily armed fortress. I guess that's why King Tryndamere chose the structure as the royal residence. It's a symbol of Avarosan military might – it's quite harmless during peacetime, but disturb it, and you're in for a long, protracted engagement."

Thunderwrath, upon hearing Garen, made comparisons between his order and the Avarosans. In several ways, they were similar. Just before the Dire Ancient's destruction, the blood-crazed soldiers of the Empire of Xhacatocatl had made the mistake of making enemies with Emauracus' local order of knights. The All-Knowing One's disciples swiftly and disturbingly went from being harmless preachers to eerily dour crusaders, hell-bent on resecuring their territories and protecting those who fell under their jurisdiction… all while making sure that their blood remained in their bodies. In just a few months of sporadic engagements, the Flayed Ones themselves had deemed their campaign as not worth the military expenditure, and had made the decision to withdraw all Xhacatocatlian forces still within Emauracus.

After enough gaping, Kunkka had enough of the exteriors of the palace and had ushered his group to move inside. Thunderwrath expected to see some sort of dour, dreary-looking interiors with weapon racks on the walls, armed guards on every corner, minimal lighting, and a ballista positioned to have a clear firing position on every corridor. But once the Omniknight's snow-caked greaves landed on the fine sheepskin carpet, he regretted not wearing civilian boots instead.

Indeed, instead of resembling the military citadel it was made out to be, the interiors of the palace were adorned with decorations fit for royalty, but not too much as to hurt one's eyes due to the amount of exquisite ornaments that should take a commoner a large chunk of his life to even dream of possessing. However, there was not a single soul in sight, besides a single uniformed soldier – one of the housecarls, as told by the single pauldron on his left shoulder inscribed with the Avarosan royal seal.

"Your arrival was not expected to be this early," The soldier gruffly said, as he approached Kunkka's group. "But Her Majesty Queen Ashe is still willing to take you. I was instructed to lead you to her, if you'd follow me."

Garen had placed himself in front of his group. "We'd like that, thank you."

Before they could further proceed, a familiar warmth had come to grace Thunderwrath's body. The Omniknight felt his cold lips involuntarily curl upwards into a smile. The Omniscience itself had made its presence known.

However, what it said to him wasn't anything Thunderwrath had come to expect. Instead of the all-powerful, awe-inspiring voice of the Omniscience he had come to expect, the god's voice was now weak and unclear, as if its powers over the mortal realm had waned immeasurably. Instead of giving him directions on what to do, or where to go, the Omniscience only uttered a single word of warning: _'shroud'._

It was the same thing that Thunderwrath had heard over his sleep during the first day of the voyage to the Rishi Islands. He had assumed that it was just a random utterance of his tired mind, not knowing if it was anything of significance.

Without a proper warning, Thunderwrath sharply halted his steps and turned to Kunkka.

"Admiral, I need to go outside. Something is amiss, and I'm not just having a hunch. Besides, I have no business with royalty. You and Lanaya should proceed without me."

Kunkka looked at Thunderwrath with incredulity. "Why, I'm certain the only enemies we've made on our stay here are the bluesa— I mean, the Winter's Claw, and I doubt that any of them would be right here in the Avarosan capital city."

"No, we won't have to worry about any of them here. There's something else we need to look out for." And with that, the Omniknight stomped away, unstrapping the hammer on his back.

"I should go as well." Lanaya said to Kunkka, upon seeing Thunderwrath go out the door. "You're the one with business with the queen. I'm better off elsewhere."

Kunkka now looked confused out of his mind. "I could send Volkov off with him, see if he's right about his intuitions." He said, his tone utterly flabbergasted. "Come on, Lanaya. You and Volkov are the only ones I could trust here, and Volkov isn't as skilled in fighting as you are."

"Hey!" Volkov cried out over at his corner, only to be silenced by a glare from Lanaya.

"I'll do it," Abruptly, Garen's voice entered the fray. "I'll go with the knight, and everybody else could stay and go on with business as usual."

It was Quinn's turn be surprised. "_What_? You're the lead Demacian representative here, not me! Lux would've made sense as your replacement, but I doubt Queen Ashe would just let _me_ take your place."

Garen placed a reassuring hand on the pathfinder's shoulder. "You've already met Ashe herself. Don't sell yourself short, you'll do just fine. Don't forget that you're not alone; call Valor if you have to." He gave a single nod before taking off after Thunderwrath.

The admiral, now composed, looked at the four remaining members of his group with a bemused expression. "I don't know what just happened, but we should get going." He turned to the housecarl, who had the courtesy of staying silent all the while. "Lead us to Her Majesty, if you'd please."

The housecarl nodded. "Follow me."

…

**Demacia/The Veil**

"Well, it looks like you won't be able to enlist today." Lux glumly said, looking at the doors to the auxiliary recruitment center, which had a sign that read: 'Avarosan Auxiliary Allocation and Recruitment Facility – open Tuesdays to Fridays, closed Saturdays to Mondays'.

"But that's okay." Lux was back to her usual attitude. "You said you don't even know what Rakelstake is called, and I doubt that you even know your way around town."

The pale-green stranger meekly nodded. Lux tried to call her name, but she remembered that her new friend hasn't even told her name yet to her. "That reminds me, you haven't told me your name yet. What are you called?"

The stranger's eyes subtly darted around her surroundings, as if she was looking for people after her. Lux noticed that her yellowish-green eyes weren't like that of a normal person, it's as if it belonged to a wild creature.

"My name… is Mortred." She said, her tone barely considered a whisper. "And yes, I could really use some directions. Perhaps you have access to a map I could use?"

Lux shook her head. She observed that Mortred's accent sounded a bit like a Demacian noblewoman's, like a certain rapier-wielding duelist. "No, not really. But I've got something better; what say… I take you around town and show you around? I can't just leave a person strolling purposelessly around Rakelstake – it's a big city, you know."

Mortred seemed hesitant to answer, but she eventually acquiesced. "Lead the way, then."

"Very good," The Lady of Luminosity beamed, giddy at being given an excuse to go around town. She nearly forgave her brother for leaving her and taking the lieutenant for a walk in Rakelstake's streets instead.

"We'll go and look around Arnafjoror Quarter for a bit, then we should be just a few blocks from Queen Ashe's palace. I heard there's a bit of a commotion going on over there, but it should be gone by the time we make it to the palace grounds. Let's go."

Mortred never shared the same amount of enthusiasm that Lux had, but the Demacian thought she spotted a tiny smile that momentarily appeared on her lips.

…

**Cladd/Avarosa**

Kunkka and his comrades followed the housecarl further into the depths of the colossal edifice. Sometimes, the admiral's curiosity took hold of him as he requested a momentary halt to their advance just to see a particularly interesting piece of fine art adorning the walls, or weathered greatswords and bows behind display cases. Not even unremarkable banners were safe from Kunkka's scrutiny.

Finally, after several minutes of constant advancing and halting, the group reached their destination – the great hall.

"Her Majesty should be just ahead, grand admiral." The housecarl informed. "I suggest you don't keep her waiting. I'll be leaving now." He abruptly turned on his heel and left.

After a few steps further ahead, the admiral had already spotted Queen Ashe, now decked in full regalia. If Kunkka still had doubts of her claims for queenhood, his misgivings were dispelled at that very moment. Truly, someone who looked so stunning from a distance (pun intended, thank you very much) and moved with such majestic gracefulness surely must be royalty.

Kunkka made an effort to greet the queen with his comrades following closely behind. Ashe livened up when she caught sight of the admiral, and strode out to meet him. But before the two parties could cross the distance between each other, a large man came from seemingly nowhere and put himself between Kunkka and the queen.

Kunkka expertly masked his irritation and examined the man. Like Ashe, he was dressed for a very formal occasion – much like a very rich nobleman. There was an oversized sword strapped to his back, and it was even larger than Captain Garen's. On his shoulders were furred pauldrons and on the top of his head was a crown. All in all, he looked very much like a king.

_A king_. The thought ran through the admiral's mind until he understood. He couldn't bring it upon himself to act surprised. _This man is the king of Freljord._

Adopting his highborn accent once more, Kunkka forced another smile out of his mouth, took his hat from his head and bowed. "I wasn't informed that I would be facing two monarchs instead of a single one. May I ask, what is your name, my liege?"

The king looked down at Kunkka with a stern expression. He was about to speak, when Ashe suddenly brushed him away from behind.

"Excuse him, he's usually really cross whenever he knew he can't go out in the frontlines." She said, looking rather awkward. "Anyways, this is King Tryndamere the First of Freljord, my dear husband."

"I was just about to introduce myself…" Tryndamere muttered.

Kunkka looked behind him for a moment, to his group. As usual, Lanaya is nowhere to be seen, but her reserved presence can be faintly sensed inside the great hall. Volkov looked like he was disappointed at something, and Quinn was looking at him with a sheepish expression. He turned back to the two monarchs.

"King Tryndamere. 'Tis my honor to finally make your acquaintance." Kunkka greeted the king. He noticed Ashe cringing at the accent he forced himself to adopt. _Come to think of it, it _does_ sound ridiculous,_ he derisively thought. "I trust that Her Majesty had taken to informing you of my reasons as to why I'm here?"

Tryndamere didn't look pleased. "Yes, and please, I'm not looking to be showered with honeyed words like a sheltered maiden. You can drop the act, grand admiral."

Kunkka flinched. "As His Majesty wishes…" Recomposing himself, the admiral went for the point.

"Let's go and find ourselves some seats. I think this should take quite a while."

After quickly finding themselves a table and making themselves comfortable, an awkward moment of silence descended upon the group. Kunkka was waiting for Ashe to start speaking, Lanaya was still hiding somewhere, Volkov was strangely silent and Quinn was too nervous to utter a single word. Tryndamere looked more and more restless and Ashe seemed hesitant to speak. Even the royal guards posted adjacent to the great hall's entrances have abruptly halted the conversations they were holding amongst themselves.

"We should get started."

Everyone turned to the owner of the voice, Lanaya. She appeared standing behind Kunkka, whom had merely kept a straight face for the benefit of everyone.

"I get the feeling that she does that often." Quinn, still a little nervous at the presence of Freljordian royalty, said.

"I was just about to ask that, you know." Ashe said with disdain.

Kunkka sighed and nodded. "A lot more than you think, lieutenant." He turned to Ashe and Tryndamere. "So, on what part do we start, Your Majesties?"

Tryndamere looked to Ashe. In response to her nod, the king regarded Kunkka with his words,

"Start with the very beginning. We have the time."

…

**Cladd**

"Well first, let me explain that I'm the admiral of the fleet of the entire Claddish Navy." Kunkka started. He then introduced the companions he brought with him to the king. Ashe asked the admiral about the engineer, or the mounted warrior, to which Kunkka explained that they chose to tend to themselves onboard the _Leviathan_.

"Now that we've gotten properly acquainted, let me ask you: have you heard about the Trembling Isles, and by extension, the Kingdom of Cladd?" The admiral asked the two monarchs.

Ashe frowned and shook her head. Tryndamere remained in silence, a thoughtful look on his weathered features.

"I'll take that as a no…" Kunkka smiled. It's story time once again. "Eheh, anyways, Cladd is my homeland, and no matter how much I've come to resent it, I've been celebrated by my people as a hero – the best of the best when it came to defending the Isles from any sort of external threat."

He looked at Ashe. "That's why I'd have come to expect you to at least heard about me, Your Majesty. From where I came from, even the foreigners knew about the most trivial things about me – much less my name."

Lanaya rolled her eyes. It was an action that's swiftly becoming common for her to repeat. Volkov remained silent, as if he was trying his earnest to listen to the admiral. Quinn was more obviously paying her undivided attention to Kunkka as she unconsciously fiddled with her fingers. Ashe seemed to share Lanaya's sentiments, as she seemed less than impressed at the admiral, and Tryndamere had a look of amusement on his face.

"Naturally, my king would send me off to assignments that he needed done swiftly and without trouble." The admiral continued, after quickly making his observations on his listeners. "The last assignment I was sent off to do was to investigate some sort of anomaly occurring in the nearby Rishi Islands. It's predicted that if no actions were to be taken to ensure my homeland's safety, it'll be done for in the next couple of weeks. So, with my trusty companions at my side… and a whole regiment of soldiers, just in case we encountered any trouble, my flotilla embarked from Port Darlanad to the Rishi Islands." The admiral neglected to mention that the regiment he had now could only be barely considered a fair-sized battalion, what with the sheer amount of soldiers and crewmen he lost.

"Wouldn't that be a waste of resources?" Quinn asked. "I mean, an entire _regiment_ to deal with something that may or may not be harmed by mere weapons alone?"

Kunkka shook his head. "Nothing's ever overkill when it comes to things I've been sent to put down. The last time I was sent to go off on a voyage to investigate another mystery at sea, I was commissioned an entire fleet of third-rates. Turns out that we needed those ships, because the objective turned out to be a rampaging, time-warping sea serpent."

"We're getting off-track." Lanaya stated.

"Right you are." Kunkka deadpanned. "Anyways, once we've encountered our objective, it turned out to be an expanding black hole, according to Dr. Boush. All manner of objects – including my own ships – were sucked inside the damned thing. The next thing we know, that black hole had pulled in my entire flotilla and retched it out into Cape Bjorgsen, right in the middle of your naval battle, Your Majesty. Of the eleven vessels under my command, only six of them remained with me, including my own flagship."

"Which brings us to our current situation." Ashe concluded for the admiral. "You helped my fleet in defeating the Winter's Claw – with only six undermanned ships under your command. I don't know how your nation managed to outfit its navy with such advanced weaponry, but I'm glad you were on our side that day."

The admiral nodded. "Yes, but do you actually believe what I just told you? I mean, if our situations are reversed, I'd have trouble taking your account seriously."

Tryndamere made a rumbling chuckle. "If you have the courage to point that out and give us an idea that you _might_ be lying, I think it's safe to say that the chances of us being deceived are quite low."

"I've another question." Ashe said, just after her husband. "It might not be appropriate for our situation, but—"

"By all means, Your Majesty. Ask away." The admiral casually replied. "It's the reason why we're here in the first place – to clear up some unexplained things."

The queen didn't hesitate anymore. "If your account of your reputation in your native land is true, then I must ask, what made you a hero to your people? What makes you so… _significant_?"

Kunkka's smile grew noticeably wider. He then proceeded to tell everyone present of the story of how he used up his first life and his whole fleet to safeguard his homeland from invading demons, the same one he told Luna. For the first time, Lanaya actually looked rather overwhelmed by the amount of information she now had on Kunkka. Volkov had to pretend that he hadn't heard about the admiral's story hundreds of times already down at the galley, on a long, dreary voyage in depressingly calm and boring seas, and Quinn was speechless again.

Ashe looked noticeably more ashen-faced than usual after Kunkka concluded his story. "I… I've been speaking to someone who could be considered a dead man, all this time?"

Tryndamere looked nonplussed, however. "Don't feel too bad. Remember, you're married to one for years now."

Volkov coughed, giving Kunkka his cue. After clearing his throat, the admiral took a deep breath and looked at the monarchs with his most serious expression. "Your Majesties, now that I've informed you of how my flotilla suddenly came to be in your territory, and assuming that you actually _believe _everything I just told you, I hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions of my own."

"Tell us what you need to know about, then." The king said. "Within reason, of course."

**Demacia/Emauracus**

"What was _that_ back there?" Garen asked as he ran after the Omniknight. "What are you trying to say?"

Thunderwrath waited for the commander to pass the palace's threshold, back outside into the streets of Rakelstake. He merely looked across the horizon before speaking, "There's an assassin out to murder me, and she's here in this city."

Garen narrowed his eyes at Thunderwrath before realizing whom he was talking about. With a laugh, he said, "You worry too much, I doubt Lanaya would kill you while in the company of so many people. Assassins are not like that. Trust me, I know these things."

Thunderwrath looked at Garen. The commander nearly flinched at the complete and utter lack of humor in the dour expression he sported. "Lanaya isn't this assassin, captain. I know how she operates - I'd have already fled, finished off or _perished_ to the Templar Assassin in the several weeks we had in each other's company if I knew she was instructed by her Temple to end me. And believe me, she's not."

Garen understood. He grimly nodded and asked, "Then who is this assassin you had on your mind?" He asked. "By chance, does she have flowing red hair, emerald green eyes and had a long, neat scar over her left—"

Before the commander could finish his sentence, the recognizable whispering sound of the winds parting before an incoming projectile made Garen instinctively reach for his face with an open palm. An instant later, Garen closed his gloved fist before the projectile could directly impact his right temple.

What Garen saw inside his hand made his blood boil in rage despite the frigid conditions he was in. It was some inches long, of slender, smooth build, was made of tempered steel and had a sharp, pointed end.

It was a dagger.

"Katarin—" However, when Garen examined the weapon further, it wasn't the curved, ornately decorated dagger he had learned how to seize in mid-air due to the frequency of it being hurled towards him. The dagger was shaped straight, had a completely utilitarian finish and had no remarkable features whatsoever despite some carvings on the hilt and being a bit blurry in appearance. "—ah."

Thunderwrath was very surprised. "…How did you do that?"

Garen dropped the dagger. The snow promptly covered it up. "Lots of practice, and the will to adapt." He drew his greatsword and prepared to meet the assassin head-on.

Most unfortunately, the assassin was already directly behind him.

…

**The Veil/Demacia**

_Ten minutes ago…_

Lux had led Mortred to practically all the sights that the Arnafjoror Quarter could offer, and she must admit, she didn't exactly get tired of seeing all the things that she saw over the course of an hour and a half. In the Phantom Veil, the only matters of importance in there were the Sisters of the Veil, which are Mortred's fellow Phantom Assassins, and the Veiled Oracle, the woman who'd regularly give out lists of people to be sacrificed to maintain the balance of order.

"Do you know who those guys are, the ones in the blue and white coats… the 'bluecoats'?" Lux suddenly asked, looking at a group of people.

Mortred followed where Lux's eyes were. The people she saw nearly caused the Veil assassin simply disappear from sight, lest they see her and try to attack. Dressed in deep blue winterized infantry uniforms trimmed with gold and white, and armed with state-of-the-art repeating rifles, the soldiers were clearly part of Admiral Kunkka's land-based shore party – the Cerulean Guardsmen.

Just before Kunkka's flotilla had left Port Darlanad, Mortred had observed hundreds of these elite Claddish guardsmen herding themselves like clockwork automatons into several of the vessels that the admiral commanded. Back in Cladd, the Cerulean Guardsmen worked similarly to basic line infantry, but their superior weapons and training set them distinctly apart from the regular Claddish infantries.

Normal commanders would _kill _to get their hands on a single line of one hundred and fifty guardsmen. Such is their phenomenal killing power, that they were in fact instrumental in defeating the Winter's Claw boarders that assailed the admiral's ships. If it weren't for them, the crewmembers of every ship under Kunkka's command would've had trouble in keeping their vessels free of hostiles and in working order. Worse still, Mortred might just had to intervene if the scenario goes too sour.

"We should clear out of here," Mortred whispered to Lux. "Those people could not be trusted."

"What?" Lux asked, confused. "Why?"

Mortred rolled her eyes. "I know where they came from. They're imperialists, looking for more colonies to acquire."

Lux was about to ask more questions, but Mortred was not having any of it. She hurriedly took off, leaving her erstwhile guide alone once more. The Veil assassin continued to run, she cared not of where she'd end up, as long as the Claddsmen didn't spot her.

That is, until a familiar trail came to her senses. Detecting the presence of such a righteous individual, Mortred halted her steps and surreptitiously lurked off to intercept the trail. It wasn't long until she came within what seemed like a military fortress, judging from the ominous vibes the structure gave.

Lying silent and invisible in one darkened corner, Mortred felt the presence becoming much closer, much more prominent. Her quarry was here – no, he is _still here_. True to her instincts, soon enough, two men emerged from the structure's entrance. Both looked like soldiers, one was unfamiliar, the other terribly familiar.

Inwardly regretting that her stay in Rakelstake must come to an end, as her duties to the Oracle _must_ be fulfilled, Mortred drew a dagger and prepared to strike. The two men were now arguing amongst themselves. _Perfect,_ the Veil assassin thought. _I must get rid of the more obvious threat._

Sucking in a breath, the Veil assassin threw her arm back and hurled the dagger towards the unfamiliar man. To her eternal shock and surprise, the man smoothly took hold of her weapon in mid-flight, acting like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. The original target acted surprised, but in short order, his form tensed up for combat. The other man merely dropped the blade and drew the enormous sword he carried on his back.

Mortred nevertheless used the distraction her dagger made to move to her targets closer. When she was close enough, she went in for the kill, teleporting just behind the greatsword-wielding man. With practiced ease, Mortred did a quick spin for momentum, and with the same force that killed heavily armored soldiers, swung her blade at the man's back. Her blow elicited a shower of blood from where she struck, recoloring the snow on the ground with the color of life.

…

**Cladd/Demacia/Avarosa**

Kunkka had earlier asked about the Freljordian civil conflict – he asked why the Avarosan tribe is embroiled in a bloody conflict with the Winter's Claw tribe. Tryndamere had told him, Lanaya and Volkov the whole story – that of how Sejuani violently turned away his tribe's offers of peaceful coexistence, before gradually escalating her own tribe's belligerent attitude to outright hostility.

Pleased with knowing that he just ordered his men and his fellow Heroes to fight for the right side, Kunkka then asked about his current position. He questioned the two monarchs about Freljord, and its position in the world.

The admiral was already satisfied about the answer he got from asking about the Freljordian civil conflict, but the answer he received from Ashe about his position – the continent of Valoran, and in the planet of Runeterra – had dire effects on his morale, and judging from Lanaya's worried eyes and Volkov's slack-jawed expression, the Templar Assassin and the first mate felt the same as the admiral.

If what the queen said was true, then the black hole didn't transport them to another continent in the world, but to another world altogether. Thankfully, neither the two monarchs nor the pathfinder ever seemed to take significant notice of his or Lanaya and Volkov's dampened spirits. Before long, the admiral decided that he'd have to keep up with the façade of being a native Runeterran – if only just to keep unwanted attention away from himself and his comrades. He realized that in order for his ruse to be successful, then his crew and his fellow Heroes needed to also adopt pretences of being natives to the world they're currently in.

"Did you hear that?" Quinn suddenly asked, standing up from her seat.

"I heard it too," Lanaya spoke up, eager to change subjects. "Sounded like a yelp of pain."

Kunkka also stood up from his seat, inwardly relieved to see an opportunity to take his mind off things. "Everybody heard it?"

Almost everybody nodded their agreement, with the rest just being confused.

"We should get outside," Ashe said, looking at her husband. "There's no telling what's happening out there."

Tryndamere nodded. "You should get your bow, then. I've already got my sword."

Kunkka turned to the pathfinder. "Quinn, whoever must this 'Valor' be, I think it's best if you called him now. We might need his help, whomever he might be."

The lieutenant needed not to be asked more. She took hold of her crossbow and sprinted off to see what's going on outside.

"We should go with the lass," Volkov said, drawing a flintlock pistol. "This could be bad."

…

**Emauracus/Demacia/The Veil**

"Captain!"

Thunderwrath made an effort to heal Garen, but to his surprise, he was not as wounded as he expected him to be. By the Omniscience, he didn't even get so much as thrown to the ground after being struck by Mortred's 'blow of grace'. Even the Veil assassin herself was shocked beyond words at the man's unexpected fortitude.

Quickly going over his momentary surprise, Thunderwrath nevertheless healed Garen, but Mortred appeared to have regained her composure as well, as she had leaped out of the way of the flames that should've scorched her.

Despite the amount of blood he lost, the commander swiftly spun around, hefting his enormous blade to make a quick decapitating strike on Mortred. After avoiding Thunderwrath's fiery attack, she was too late to properly move out of the greatsword's way. The blade came into contact with her chestplate, knocking her back and making a long jagged trench over its normally flawless surface. Truly, it was fortunate for Mortred to have an undermail under her chestplate, or the wounds that she would've sustained might've been too much for her to handle.

Soon, Mortred found herself on the defensive against an onslaught of greatsword swings from her opponent. She used every bit of her experience and skills to dexterously evade all of Garen's blows. Since his sword was roughly just as tall as she was, Mortred felt that there is no use trying to parry it with her own blade. The advantages of being a Sister of the Veil were instrumental to keeping Mortred on her feet, as her unnatural obscureness made her harder for Garen to hit.

Thunderwrath let Garen and Mortred deal with each other. His occupation as a Hierophant necessitated his distance from a fight unless it was truly necessary – a fact that was mirrored by his combat tactics during the Radiant-Dire conflict. The Omniknight could be just as competent as Garen in combat, but his duties as a healer were much more important than his role as a soldier. Intermittently, whenever Mortred could land tiny blows of her blade on Garen, Thunderwrath would heal the commander's wounds with purification spells.

Garen was seeing red. Never had he experienced such pain, such _agony_ as the blow that made a bloody mess of the chainmail he wore under his overcoat. The commander's mind, however, was still in control of how his body functioned. He never gave in to his urges and go on a mindless, purely offensive attack, as it would essentially give his opponent an opportunity she could use to put herself in an advantage, or simply kill him. Blow after blow did he continually miss, but each strike after another grew more precise and less cumbersome. Soon, blood will be spilled, but this time, it wouldn't be his own.

Garen and Mortred were so engrossed in combat, and Thunderwrath was also trying his best to avoid being targeted by Mortred, that all three of them didn't notice several squads of Cerulean Guardsmen approaching their position, having heard the rumors of a bloody conflict erupting just outside the Rakelstake palace between three armed combatants.

"It's the Phantom Assassin, Mortred!" Lieutenant Colonel Hutchinson of the 271st Claddish Regiment of Foot shouted to his men, upon spotting the blurry figure engaged in combat with the Demacian and the Omniknight. "Soldiers, ready your arms and follow me! Let's have ourselves a dead assassin!"

Thunderwrath now took note of the guardsmen running for his position. He momentarily had to move out of the way of an incoming dagger from Mortred before coming to observe an eagle flying overhead.

"Gouge her eyes out, Valor!" The Omniknight heard Lieutenant Quinn's voice.

Garen also heard the pathfinder's voice, and unfortunately, this caused him to lower his guard a bit. This momentary lowering of his defenses was enough for Mortred to put herself on the offensive once more. She took out her last dagger and plunged it down at Garen's right leg, causing him to go down on his left knee. Garen swung his sword at his front to put himself some distance away from Mortred so he could recover, but the Veil assassin merely ducked out of the blade's way and delivered a lightning-fast slash of her blade across the commander's face.

Garen clutched at his head with both hands as he squirmed on the ground, writhing in pain. The Phantom Assassin raised her blade, about to deliver the final blow to end the Demacian's life. She knew that Thunderwrath had already spent most of his energy on purification spells, and that he's still a distance from her. Mortred understood that Garen's life is now hers to take.

Unfortunately, after an ear-piercing shriek echoed in the air, an eagle was already on Mortred. It tried to claw out her eyes through her helmet. Having thought that she had wasted enough time, the Veil assassin backhanded the aggressive bird away and immediately teleported behind Thunderwrath. The Omniknight expected her to appear, however, and had already raised his guard.

The two Heroes, one of the Radiant and the other of the Dire, traded blows for several seconds. Through the injuries Mortred had sustained from Garen, and Thunderwrath's long experiences with dealing with the likes of the Phantom Assassin, the two Heroes were evenly matched for their fight. That is, until two simultaneous crossbow bolts had imbedded themselves on Mortred's already damaged chestplate, sending her staggering back.

Thunderwrath used his advantage to bash his hammer to Mortred's side, causing her to spin at the force of the blow. With her back turned to him, the Omniknight brought his hammer down once more on Mortred, with enough force to shatter unprotected spines.

Mortred took the blow, causing her to get knocked down to the snowy ground with a pained grunt. Thunderwrath tried to finish her off with another strike of his hammer, but the Veil assassin rolled out of the way. Propping herself up, she abruptly tried to make a run for it.

_This endeavor is lost,_ she thought. _I'll have to reattempt this in the future._

The Veil assassin ran from the pursuing Omniknight, but the path she was about to take was now filled with Cerulean Guardsmen.

"Give up while you still can, assassin!" A guardsman shouted. "Don't try to run, make it easy on yourself and yield!"

She hurriedly turned back to find another path, and as she did so, Kunkka and his companions had appeared, their weapons drawn and ready for use against her.

"_Mortred!_" Upon getting a good look at her, the admiral spat her name like it was some sort of curse. "Here to kill Purist on my watch, eh? We'll see about _that_! Everybody, I want that assassin taken down this instant!" He threateningly pointed at Mortred. Like clockwork, Lanaya and Volkov immediately obeyed his order to attack.

Feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the number of people now in pursuit of her, Mortred teleported behind the admiral's back, threw snow into his face to distract him before running for the first hostile-free direction she came across. She continued fleeing for the next few seconds, until two individuals dressed in clothes that marked them as royalty blocked her path.

"And who might you be?" The king said, heaving a sword even bigger than Garen's. "Lost in our palace, are you?"

"That's an assassin, dear." The queen calmly stated, with an arrow already nocked on her icy bow. "The third one this month, I believe."

Mortred was about to come to blows with the two royals, but before she could sink her blade into the king's neck, she suddenly found herself back with Kunkka's position in a flash of red. The admiral, Lanaya, Thunderwrath, Volkov, Quinn and a whole legion of stern-faced Claddish guardsmen encircled her. Mortred was now completely terrified at the odds stacked against her. She tried to attempt another escape, but sphere of light passed underneath her and bound her boots together, rooting her to the ground.

The Veil assassin turned her head to the source of the sphere, and found Lux looking at her with a _furious_ expression, with the staff she carried still in the process of winding down. "Looks like you're the one I should not be trusting, Mortred." She said, before turning on her heel to attend to Garen's injuries. Quinn joined Lux not long after she made sure her target wouldn't escape her comrades' grasp.

Kunkka looked at Thunderwrath with a grim face. The Omniknight briefly trained a resolute glare at Mortred before giving Kunkka a single nod. In a single fluid motion, the admiral smoothly drew the flintlock pistol strapped to his chest and shot the Veil assassin's main swinging arm with practiced precision, causing her to instinctively release her blade from her grasp at the sudden lance of pain she experienced.

Exhausted from protracted combat, deprived of her weapon and vulnerable from any further attacks, the Veil assassin could only clutch at her injured, bleeding arm helplessly as one of the guardsmen approached her, pulled back his rifle's wooden stock and quickly used it as a way to force the Phantom Assassin into unconsciousness. And after all that Mortred been through today, sleep wasn't so unwelcome to her.

…

**Cladd/Demacia/Avarosa**

Back in Rakelstake palace's great hall, Kunkka paced back and forth the hall with an unsettled look on his face. He had already sent Volkov back to Narfasker to tend to his usual duties as an admiral so he could stay in Rakelstake a bit further. _How could I not have foreseen this?_ He asked himself. _How could I have been so careless? _"These turn of events have been thoroughly unexpected, I assure Your Majesties."

Ashe looked at the admiral with a concerned expression. He had been blaming himself for quite a bit of time now. "You've already made that clear when you said it the first time, there's no more need to apologize any further. The assassin would be locked up in the dungeons until further notice. As it stands, there should be nothing else for us to worry about."

The admiral was still unconvinced of everybody's supposed safety, however. "We could never be so sure. If someone like Mortred could've infiltrated one of my ships, who's to say that a few more unsavoury individuals are still lurking in the cargo holds, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike?"

The queen looked at her husband, who only shook his head. Just after he collected his bearings, the admiral had vaguely informed the monarchs about some sort of conflict he and his comrades recently participated in. He apparently had made a lot of allies, and even more enemies still during those times, and the Phantom Assassin was evidently one of the latter. Or more precisely – an enemy of the Omniknight.

"This is all my fault," Kunkka miserably continued. "I've potentially brought my old enemies to your kingdom, Your Majesties. These individuals couldn't be brought down by an ordinary footsoldier, as you should've noticed earlier, and they might be hiding in Rakelstake's alleyways and cisterns right now for all we know."

"You forgot one thing, admiral," Garen said.

The cut he took from Mortred was more or less just made to throw him off, and as a result, it wasn't that deep, but a scar would nevertheless remain as a reminder of his near-death at the hands of the Phantom Assassin. The massive blade wound he sustained on his back, however, was something that necessitated serious medical attention, but for some reason, Garen was strong enough to walk and interact with people normally. For now, a bloodied dressing was plastered across half of his face and even more bandages were strapped to his back.

"Rakelstake is currently brimming with formidable warriors from most of the city-states, looking to use their skills to further the Avarosan cause." The commander stopped to drink from a vial of gelatinous red liquid – the same one he was drinking from for several hours now. "If any of your old adversaries are here, I doubt that they'll last long when they choose to appear. If they preferred to stay in whatever dreadful crevice they're hiding in, I think it's only fitting for such scum to lurk in Rakelstake's more unsavory places."

"And don't forget about us, your fellow Demacians." Quinn said to Garen as she readjusted her armguard to better accommodate the eagle sitting on top of it. The avian was apparently the one called Valor, Kunkka observed. He even had the same coloration as Squawkins, the admiral's own loyal parrot. "The Vanguard stands ready for war, and my colleagues are still stationed in every imaginable corner of the city. It shouldn't take too long for them to spot any suspicious characters."

"Garen, I think you should seriously consider getting a medic right now. I don't care how much you think you feel fine." The woman that Garen introduced as his sister, the one called Lux, was silent until now. "And I didn't even see Mortred as slightly suspicious until it was too late. She just looked so… lost. It's like she wasn't even an assassin, just a woman who couldn't find her way."

Lanaya scoffed. "Mortred was always a cunning one. I didn't even detect her presence while we're on the voyage to the islands. She must've been getting a lot of practice recently."

"Aye, but she won't be a problem anymore, I guarantee you." Tryndamere spoke up. "The dungeon underneath us had never let a single prisoner escape since it was constructed. The dungeon's dreary walls would eventually break even the strongest of wills. Your assassin would never see the light of day again."

Thunderwrath could only hope. "I don't have a clue as to why Mortred was after me, she's certainly one of the most deadliest assassins I've ever took notice on. I certainly hope that the worst had already come to pass. That way, we could get back to doing our responsibilities and getting on with our lives."

Kunkka didn't share the Omniknight's optimism – a far cry from his usual self. He regarded the two monarchs with an exhausted look. "We'll sort out our businesses tomorrow in the morning, Your Majesties. We'll leave Mortred in your custody for now. I'm not sure what we'll do with her, but we'll certainly _not_ going execute her for attempted murder unless she proves too troublesome to keep."

"Extending your mercy and consideration to your enemies is a sign of weakness, admiral." Tryndamere disdainfully said. "All Freljordians are given that lesson since childhood. You and your company would do well to remember that."

Kunkka wasn't in the mood to be given lessons. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty. As you can see, neither my company nor I are natives to Freljord. And make no mistake; matters would fare a lot better for everyone if Mortred stays _alive_."

Ashe shook her head at Tryndamere. "Trynd, you're not helping right now." He turned to Kunkka. "Don't worry about the assassin. She'll be in good condition until you say otherwise, or she gets out of hand."

The admiral gave a tired sigh, forced another polite smile on his face and took his hat from his head. "I appreciate it, my queen. Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to get going. After the sudden turn of events today, I suppose I've got a lot of things to attend to and a lot of people to inform back on Narfasker. I'm sure you have other duties that needed your attention as well."

The king nodded in affirmative. "That we do. We'll see each other again tomorrow, but this time, we'd like you to bring your most trusted soldiers and advisors with you."

Kunkka raised a brow. "And why is that, I may ask, Your Majesty?"

Tryndamere and Ashe turned to regard one other, as if asking themselves on what to do next. It was Tryndamere who broke contact first. "As much as I loathe to say it, your services as an admiral and a soldier to our cause would be invaluable in speeding up our pacification of the Winter's Claw tribe. In short, we want you to stay and fight for us."

"We won't treat you as a mercenary," Ashe carefully said, with all the refinement of a trained diplomat. "But rather, as a comrade-in-arms. In exchange for your services, we'd like to extend our reach to the Claddish Kingdom – we'll ask your king of the appropriate reward for your help in securing our own kingdom from dissidents."

Kunkka would normally respond quickly with a yes, as Cladd could always use new trade partners or military allies, but unfortunately, his homeland might not even be in Runeterra. "I'll think about it, Your Majesties. If you don't mind, we'll take our leave now. Farewell."

With that said, the admiral and his company left the great hall, out into Rakelstake's snowy streets once more.

* * *

I'll be gone for a bit after posting this one. I'll have to write updates for the other story I'm doing.

Also, why are Demacian soldiers (Dauntless Vanguards among them, no less) in Freljord, you ask? Well, they're sent there as a favor (read: extra manpower) by the Demacian king to mend the less-than-cordial diplomatic relations between Demacia and Freljord.

EDIT: 09/07/14 - Guests, some of the reviews have been deleted by an error. Sorry 'bout that.

* * *

D.C. Draco: Yes, PA's with them. Nice catch. _However_, don't assume that PA would be the last Dota character to make an appearance. I've got a couple more in mind.

CHPrime: Kunkka mannerisms and attitudes in this fic are based on how the British media portrayed famous admirals back in the days of sailing (Admiral Nelson, for example). I also based his mannerisms on his quotes, judging by how he seemed to always be on the verge of laughing when he spoke, and how he compliments WR, and even Broodmother.

Well, if only the carry isn't actively out to get him, Omniknight would've loved to have another person to support.

BlastoiseBlue: Well, given that in-game, anyone could, in your words, 'simply discard Tidebringer' and give him any sort of sword to wield and _still _have his 'Tidebringer' ability functioning, then I'm assuming that the soul could transfer to anything he's wielding as a weapon. A lot of things in Dota (and LoL) weren't made clear by the games' developers, so I'd have to make up sections of the story by myself, or modify them a bit.

Demosthenes2211: Thanks a lot for reviewing. Supporting this story gives me more motivation to write.

CrossoverBuns: My thanks. I appreciate your review. Really.

HS777: Thank you for sparing the time to read this, then. Also, in LoL, Heroes are called 'Champions', to differentiate them from Dota, and to avoid lawsuits and angry players. Maybe.


	5. Cells

**Nightsilver**

"Your Highness, there is a matter at hand that warrants your attention."

Princess Mirana looked behind her and found Luna's second-in-command, a Dark Moon warrior going by the name of Avelina. In contrast to Luna's violent, sometimes unreasonably cruel behavior, Avelina was quiet and reserved; she specialized in infiltration and manipulation instead of direct combat like her peers. Also unlike Luna, Avelina was not as appreciated as the Moon Rider, as her area of expertise as an unseen manipulator-of-events was often derided by the ranks of the Dark Moon as dishonorable and cowardly.

Turning back to the statue of Selemene before her, Mirana muttered the last of her valedictions to the goddess before standing up from her kneeling position, turning around and regarding the Dark Moon infiltrator.

"This had better be important," The princess said, rather harshly. She brushed away a messy lock of her own hair from her eyes. "I already have a lot of things on my mind – chief among them is _where _in Cyrillia had Luna gone off to."

Avelina cursorily examined Mirana's disorganized appearance. In essence, without all of her fineries and the typical regal posture she adopted, Mirana looked less like a person born of royalty and more like a madwoman. However, the infiltrator saw no point on bringing it up, as the princess had been that way for several weeks now.

Going straight for the point, Avelina said, "Princess, one of your old enemies from the Dire had shown up in our doorstep hours ago. We didn't recognize him when we first saw him, but we had the luck to have Master Saldrin with us at the time. The seer took one good look at our visitor, and reported that indeed, the wolf's unholy blood tainted his very essence. Before we took the Lycan in, he said he wanted to see you."

_Von Ambry,_ was the first person that crossed Mirana's mind first. It wasn't common knowledge that towards the very end of the War of the Ancients, Lycan turned over to the Radiant side of things for reasons only he knew about. Of course, he was distrusted by his new comrades, but his wolfish talents proved invaluable in getting an edge over the Dire, and he never once betrayed his new allies like he did with his old ones.

"What did he say he wanted from me?" Mirana's earlier irritation had already began to dissipate, being replaced with interest. "And where might he be right now?"

"He didn't say anything that's of worth to us, as he said that he only wanted to talk to _you_ in person, Your Highness." Avelina informed. "Knowing his kind, we knew that he posed a risk to Nightsilver. Fortunately, he didn't resist when we made efforts to take him under custody. Last I've seen, my colleagues are taking the Lycan to the Dorothore Dungeons."

As a response, in less than ten seconds, Mirana shook off the fatigued look on her features, did her best to reform her remarkably unkempt hair and smoothed her dress.

"Take me to him, then." The princess commanded. "Once we get there, it's more than likely that von Ambry would request all guards to leave us while we talked. He doesn't like it when his company outnumbered him."

"Your Highness?" Avelina raised an inquisitive – albeit worried – brow. "Your safety is jeopardized without at least a pair of Dark Moon escorts to watch over you. The Slomite Lycans are infamous for—"

"I can watch over myself, Avelina." Mirana interposed. "I know more things about von Ambry than the common folk. I'm quite confident of my own security."

"Nevertheless, he is still a Lycan— no, _the _Lycan." Avelina said as she and Mirana walked towards the Temple of Mene's nearest exit. "You'd do well to be vigilant while you're in the wolf's company, Your Highness. Luna's disappearance was a heavy toll on Nightsilver's security and the Dark Moon's morale; the loss of the Princess of the Moon would be the death of us all."

...

**Nightsilver/House Ambry**  


"The Lycan lodges behind this door, Your Highness," Warden Velow said, gesturing to the state-of-the-art, magically secured heavy prison door directly behind him. The door itself, like all cell doors in the Dorothore Dungeons, was commissioned from the faraway, technomagically-savvy kingdom of Candoness.

Velow turned to his side and tapped the door with the pointed steel end of his feathered spear. "My men are ready to drag his mangy hide out of his cell and to you. Just say the word and we'll make it so. Violently if we must."

Mirana glared at the warden, roughly shoved him aside and dispelled the magical locks and sealing runes keeping the door shut and secure from even the most notorious of the Slomite Lycanthropes.

From behind the door lay Banehallow's abnormally spacious – but drearily bare – prison compartment. Mirana noted that the only sources of illumination inside the room were the moonlight pouring from a tiny grated hole in the ceiling, and two eerie pale yellow lights on one corner.

"Princess Mirana." A sudden, heavily accented Slomite voice came from the shadows of von Ambry's cell. "It's been... quite a while since we last met, I believe."

The voice's affable tone turned gruff in an instant. "Close the door."

Mirana's mood soured even further at being bluntly ordered around by someone whom she had considered a foe not too long ago, but she would be damned before she'd let her pride get hold of her actions.

"Warden, close the door behind me, would you. And don't enter unless I say so." She ordered. Velow was about to understandably protest, but the wordless, deathly glare the princess gave him forced him to reluctantly comply.

"We'll be right behind this door, Your Highness. Don't hesitate to call if you need us." Sparing one last worried look at the princess, Velow closed the door shut, sealing Mirana inside the cell.

With only herself as the other occupant of the room she was in, Mirana uneasily stepped forwards, further into the cell. She couldn't help but notice that the two lights appeared to be following her as she moved.

"I suppose you'll want an explanation." The voice started, after several seconds of silence. "It isn't everyday you see the last scion of a once-great house casually strolling up to your nation's doorstep."

Since the source of the voice seemed to have come from the exact direction of the two yellow lights, Mirana concluded that the lights were actually his eyes. She could also make out the obscure outline of his angular face, with faint moonlight reflecting off of it.

"It's only fair, Banehallow." The princess said, edging herself to a more illuminated corner of the cell, one where a torch was bolted to the wall. "You wouldn't want to spend the rest of your days imprisoned in here, all alone and in constant darkness."

A dry chuckle, came the Lycan's response. "Since the fateful day of my... _change_, darkness had been my only ally, and it will be the only ally I'll ever require. I'm quite comfortable here in this cell."

"I heard that they feed prisoners here with potatoes," In a smug tone of voice, Mirana crooned. "_Only _with potatoes."

"...No meat?" Banehallow's confident voice started to crack.

The princess smirked. _Check and mate._"None whatsoever. Here in Nightsilver, we value life more than anything. You'd best remember that while you're here."

"I suppose you have me at a disadvantage this time, Your Highness." The Lycan sarcastically drawn out his last two words.

The two lights disappeared for a moment, before they reappeared with greater intensity. "Would you believe me if I told you that I'm working for the people now?" The Lycan asked, although his tone signified that he already knew what his answer would be.

"No." Came Mirana's swift and expected response.

"You'll just have to." The Lycan said, with steel in his tone. "To make a long story short, I now use my abilities as part wolf to track down disappeared people as my new line of work – use my enhanced perception and deduction skills to find things that normal people could not, that sort of matter."

"...Go on." Mirana was now paying her undivided attention to Banehallow, even if the rational part of her all but screamed at her not to. Maybe, just maybe, the Lycan might prove useful if he wasn't lying.

"I've been doing this for several months now, and my recent streak of successes had brought me recognition in places such as Cobalt, Stonehall, the Isle of Songs, and most importantly," Banehallow paused, taking a breath. "The Trembling Islands."

...

**The Veil/Emauracus/Cladd/Demacia**

Slumped down on one corner of her cell, Mortred soundlessly nursed her injured arm. The bracer that once adorned it had been removed, and the wounded area itself had been expertly dressed in bandages that were slightly colored red with her own blood.

The Veil assassin had just regained consciousness several hours ago, and was surprised to find herself alive and in a dark, dank prison cell of some kind. The grand admiral had a reputation for expediency and pragmatism; it was very rare for him to leave serious threats he had vanquished alive, especially a Veiled Sister of Mortred's dreaded repute.

Since waking up, Mortred had used up her spare time in devising ways to escape her cell and continue on with her mission. However, the cell she was in was depressingly bare – it had virtually nothing in it that the assassin could use to escape, and the cell door itself used a different locking mechanism than what was familiar to the Phantom Assassin. Indeed, the door, the lock and the whole cell itself was designed in a way that Mortred had never seen in her numerous travels across the continents in Cyrillia.

Facing the facts that trying to escape would only prove fruitless and taxing, Mortred could do nothing but sit down on one corner and wait. She disregarded the continuous stinging coming from her arm. The admiral had let her keep her life; surely there must be a reason as to why.

"Assassin."

Mortred turned to the source of the tinny voice and found a helmeted prison guardsman standing before the bars to her cell. Judging by how she never heard his footsteps as he approached, Mortred assumed that the guard was silently standing watch over her cell the entire time.

"You can't tell from down here, but it's quarter past nine in the morning. You'll have company in ten minutes." The guard hardheartedly said. "Be prepared."

Mortred said nothing in response and edged herself further into a darkened corner of her cell. It wasn't long before heavy footfalls were heard slowly approaching.

The Veil assassin continued to stare at the wall in front of her, trying her best to avert her gaze at the collection of people now standing outside the bars of her cell. Through her peripheral vision, Mortred could make out three figures – with the two of them obviously being the admiral and the Omniknight, but the last one being only vaguely familiar.

"How is your arm?" Came the admiral's first words. "I know it smarts, but you _were_ trying to kill Purist back then."

Mortred was surprised at the admiral's concern, considering that he was the one who shot her with a pistol in the first place. Nonetheless, she neglected to provide him an answer, choosing to stay silent while idly wondering _how_ he managed to score a direct hit to her arm, despite her body's unnatural haziness.

"We're wasting time, Kunkka." It was the Omniknight's voice that spoke. "You should get to the point."

"Patience, Purist." The admiral calmly responded. "We're in no hurry. Now, Mortred, like I said, how is your arm? Does it need further medical attention?"

Deciding that keeping silent was just meaningless petty-mindedness, Mortred decided to talk, but kept her gaze away from her company. "It's fine."

"Good, good." The admiral said. The Phantom Assassin noticed that the third figure had slowly skulked from its place behind the admiral and the Omniknight, and to the front of her cell, into her sight.

"Which is more than I could say for Captain Garen here." The admiral said, gesturing at the third figure beside him. "If he were any lesser man, he'd already be dead several times over... thanks to you."

It was then that Mortred spared a clear look at the third figure. Under the light of a nearby torch, it was very clear that it was the same soldier that the Veil assassin was forced to clash blades with, but now with a bandage plastered over the right side of his face and to the side of his head.

Once again, Mortred found herself surprised. Her expertise was renowned amongst her peers within the Veil as the most lethal – not one ordinary person that she had fought with had the tenacity or good fortune to escape death, and yet, this Captain Garen emerged alive and in relatively good condition.

"My compliments to a worthy adversary, captain." The Phantom Assassin examined the captain's features. "I had expected that you'd have died not long after our fight, but here you are, _alive_. You managed to survive an encounter with a Veiled Sister; virtually no one in recorded history ever did."

The captain clearly wasn't expecting his would-be killer to be paying her respects to him for his survival. "I won't lie, only a few other assassins ever got the drop on me, but none of them ever managed to land a scratch – much less a hideous blade wound and scar."

"Shouldn't you still be under a doctor's care? And unconscious?" Mortred asked, noticing the bloodied, discarded dressings stuffed in the captain's coat pocket. "Aren't you worried that your condition might turn for the worse?"

The captain shrugged, burying the bandages deeper down his pocket. "No, I heal a lot faster than most people. I should be off the—" He was interrupted when the admiral tapped his shoulder.

"Well, you seem to be hitting it off with Mortred quite well, captain. If things turn out for the best today, that's all well and good. But we should not forget the reason why we're here, in a discussion with your would-be killer."

The captain sheepishly nodded and turned back to the Phantom Assassin. "The admiral's right, we're getting distracted. Why did you attack me and Thunderwrath?"

"The Veiled Oracle did not select you as my quarry, captain. The Omniknight was, and still is, my mark." The Veil assassin said, her voice lower than usual. "You were simply in the way. It was not my intention to kill you."

"Of course," The Omniknight spitefully uttered. "Is that not what the people of your craft always say?"

"It's your decision whether to believe me or not," Mortred unemotionally responded. "Not many people know, but the duties of a Veiled Sister necessitated the elimination of our targets, and _only_ our targets."

Remembering her first assassination, the Phantom Assassin looked downwards, her face disheartened. "Anything more is meted out in severe punishments. No exceptions are provided."

"And why is that?" The captain asked.

"The Veiled Oracle isn't as sinister as she had always made out to be, Omniknight." Mortred informed. "One unsanctioned death could have far-reaching consequences that would be very detrimental in keeping the natural order of the world."

"Then what about me?" The Omniknight's gauntleted hands grasped the bars to the cell. "Why in the All-Knowing One's name are you out to murder me? What inane reason did your false oracle provide?"

Instead of providing the knight an answer, the Phantom Assassin kept silent.

"It doesn't matter anymore, Purist." The admiral spoke up, just as the Omniknight looked to be starting to turn impatient. "We should get on with the proposition. I have a feeling she doesn't know yet."

...

**House Ambry/Nightsilver**

"You were contacted by King Frederick himself?"

Banehallow nodded, but his action went unseen, as he still lingered in the shadows. Mirana noted the fanatical gleam now present within his glowing eyes.

"He did, but I didn't stay in Wellington for long. Frederick offered me titles and the keys to Cladd's royal treasury, but I refused. Worthless labels and unnecessary wealth aren't what I wanted, nor needed. From a king with a powerful army and the best navy in all of Vahlen, I wanted something… more."

The princess looked hesitant to ask. "And what would your reward might be, Lycan?"

"Simple. I wanted soldiers – I demanded a professional, heavily-armed force." Von Ambry replied nonchalantly. "In exchange for finding his lost ships, the king would provide me with military assistance."

"Military aid? For what purpose?"

"The pacification of Slom. That's what I wanted."

Immediately, Banehallow noticed the apprehension wafting off of the princess. In days gone past, the Lycan revelled in the fear and terror he sowed within his enemies. Now, it just unnerved him that he still felt a tiny bit of enjoyment at sensing Mirana squirm.

"This is for the greater good, princess. Since the last king's death at the Beastmaster's hands, Slom's remaining, irredeemably corrupt nobles have turned the kingdom into a rogue state, preying on any nearby settlements for resources, extra territories or more often, slaves. I've already left my past behind, rest assured. This isn't personal."

"Fine, then." Still with disbelief etched in her features, Mirana crossed her arms. "I'll give you the impression that I believe you, but if that's what you wanted, then just _what_ are you doing in Nightsilver? To get help from _me_?"

"Haven't you been listening?" With humor in his tone, the Lycan asked. "I've been hired to find a lost Claddish flotilla, commanded by Grand Admiral Kunkka. Does that ring any bells, hmm? Perhaps a letter of a certain kind, dated a few months back?"

Mirana started to uneasily pace, but she kept her guard up against Banehallow. "Well, Kunkka sent a letter to my desk a few months ago. He wrote that he requested my presence in an expedition of—"

The Lycan could practically hear the metaphorical gears turning inside the princess' head. He resisted the urge to insult her. "Judging by your presence here, and the Moon Rider's lack of thereof, it's child's play to assume that you sent Luna off to Shadeshore in your stead, to serve with the admiral. And when his flotilla unexpectedly vanished off the face of the world, Luna went missing along with it."

"How in Selemene's name did you know of this, Banehallow?" Mirana asked with incredulity. "How did you know Kunkka sent letters to the Heroes?"

The Lycan rolled his eyes and took out a neatly folded letter from the inside his coat. He then decided to finally leave the darkness and strode off to Mirana, into the light.

"You wouldn't think that the admiral might send me a letter too, huh?" He unfolded the letter emblazoned with Cladd's royal seal. It looked to be once sealed with magic, but has since been unsealed. "Read it if you must."

Banehallow held out the piece of paper for the princess to take, but he noticed that she kept staring at him. He sighed. "Yes, I know. I look different. I had to keep a low profile while I'm working for my employers; looking exactly like the infamous Banehallow von Ambry isn't the best way to attract potential clients."

Indeed, he looked a lot less haggard and wolfish and more like the noble he once was, Mirana noted. "Did you just... remove your tusks?"

"I had to file them off. The process was more painful than getting your skin ruptured while your blood spilled out like the toxic fumes from Pudge's body." Banehallow deadpanned. "Really, my appearance doesn't have to trouble you that much, princess. Now, do you still want to read my letter or not?"

The Lycan extended his outstretched hand once more, clutching the invitation. Smiling with slight condescension, he said, "Maybe your opinion of me would rise to acceptable levels after reading it."

Mirana frowned. "Even the Lycan can dream." She took the letter, unfolded it and scanned the contents.

...

**Cladd/The Veil/Emauracus**

"We're not in Cyrillia anymore?" In plain disbelief and shock, the Veil Assassin stared at Kunkka.

"Shh, not too loud! We can't let the Runeterrans know." Kunkka looked behind his shoulder to Garen, whom had occupied himself by making idle conversation with the prison guard.

"Aye, that's right." Leaning forwards and speaking in a hushed tone, Kunkka tried not to sound too friendly. "That damned black hole hurled us out in another world entirely. We've basically crossed planes, Mortred. You'd best believe it."

"And you're clearing me of all charges." Looking like she was on the receiving end of a tasteless, cruel joke, the Phantom Assassin spoke. "The first one, I find plausible. This one, I find impossible."

"Relax, I'm taking every advantage I could get here." The admiral explained, somewhat unconvincingly. "Yes, we're letting you off the hook for nearly severing the captain's spinal cord,"

The admiral gestured at the captain's wounded back.

"And for attempting to murder Purist and causing public hysteria,"

Mortred noticed that Thunderwrath had been scowling at her for a long time now.

"Not to mention, for stowing aboard my flagship without having the decency to walk in front of Boush's line of sight like Lanaya did," Kunkka did his best to imitate Thunderwrath's stern expression. "But you've been with us since we left Darlanad, have you not? Surely it was clear to you that my flotilla isn't exactly overflowing with manpower at the moment – much less trained soldiers."

The admiral fished out a keyring from his breast pocket and displayed it for Mortred to see. The keys attached to the keyring appeared no different to the ones made in Cyrillia save for one, which was inscribed in runes and had a strange frosty glow wreathing it. When it looked like he was about to unlock the cell door with the unusual key, he placed the them back into his pocket.

"Of course, in exchange for us not handing you over to the local authorities to be executed for attempted assassination and resisting arrest, I— no, _we _need you to throw your lot in with us. That's the first out of two conditions."

The Phantom Assassin looked confused. "_You_ are in need of _my_ services as an assassin?"

"As much as I hate to say it, I'll have trust in Kunkka's judgement." Thunderwrath said. "Most of us thought we don't need you, as we've already got Lanaya as our assassin. But even I couldn't deny that we need all the help we could have in these foreign lands."

"More importantly, we already know your tactics and how best to deal with you, in case you turn rogue." Kunkka said. "And yes, since Lanaya already had the 'shifty, tight-lipped assassin' role, I'll have to assign you as our new scout."

"Fine, then." Mortred stood up, as if she's ready to accept the admiral's offer. "But what might the second condition be?"

Kunkka looked less confident as he spoke, "This is the most important part: I want you to abandon all of your previous directives, whatever they might be. From now on, you'll get your orders from me."

The Omniknight nodded. "In short, if you want to see the sunlight again, you'll have to drop all notions on killing me, assassin."

"I don't think your Veiled Oracle exactly predicted that her best assassin would find herself thrown out into another plane of existence while on the job, Mortred." The admiral took the keys to the cell door again.

He inserted the key inside the lock, but he didn't unlock the door. "Besides, once you're done killing Purist, _then what _do think you'll do now – swim your way back into our world? I'm your best chance on getting back to Cyrillia, and I won't appreciate it if you go about killing one of my own."

Kunkka's gloved fingers rested on the perched key. One motion could either unlock the door, or retract the key back. "So, Mortred, what would your choice be: freedom and service to a worthwhile cause on one hand, or imprisonment and eventual death on the other. It's your decision."

The Phantom Assassin stood perfectly still as she spoke, "In exchange for freedom and cessation of all assassination attempts against the Omniknight, I'll pledge my services to you. I find that acceptable and wholly logical. But tell me, what are the chances of us ever returning to where we came from?"

Kunkka was as stern-faced as he could be. "I'm not going to lie, Boush told me that the odds are _astronomically_ low – as in he hasn't even found a way remotely resembling a chance to return. If I'm being realistic, I'm afraid we're stuck here in this plane, Mortred. Indefinitely."

For some reason, Kunkka noticed the Phantom Assassin to be releasing some built-up tension, with the way her shoulders sagged and her form relaxed from constant rigidity. She even released a little sigh of relief.

"On my word as a Sister of the Veil, from then on, I serve no one but Admiral Kunkka, and under pain of death, I swear that no harm will fall upon Purist Thunderwrath by my own hands." Mortred declared somewhat monotonously, as if she had done this numerous times before.

Thunderwrath shot a look of distrust and skepticism at Mortred, to which she responded, "Intentionally, of course."

The admiral smiled and slid the key sideways. The cell door emitted a mechanical snap, like the sound of two metal parts crashing against one another. "Welcome aboard then," He grabbed hold of a bar and with it, opened the Veil assassin's cell.

Mortred left her cell, but once she passed the threshold, she was instantly set upon by a myriad of rifle-wielding Claddish soldiers patiently waiting around the corner. Kunkka laughed as Mortred nearly jumped back into her cell in surprise at the number of rifles pointed at her.

"Just in case you start having second thoughts, assassin." Thunderwrath said as a response to Mortred's startled expression. "Whether you like it or not, you're one of us now."

...

**Nightsilver/House Ambry**

_Addressed to Banehallow von Ambry, of House Ambry __ー __The Lycanthrope_

_To start off, I've just very recently received word of your new profession, Banehallow. And yes, I've read your letter addressed to me last week. I wasn't sure why you were asking me about areas with reported missing persons back then, but now I'm happy to know that you're doing your part to help those areas out. Speaking of such, here are your places:_

_Stonehall – Commander Tresdin is hiring able-bodied men and capable hands to locate and rescue a handful of Bronze Legionnaires that went missing in action after the Abyssal Invasion. I don't recommend you to go to Stonehall immediately, you should know all too well how distrustful the Legion Commander could be to people she isn't too familiar with. _

Mirana took her eyes from the letter and to Banehallow, who was leaning on the wall, waiting for her with utmost patience. "Let me guess: you went to Stonehall first, deliberately ignoring the last sentence?"

"Clever girl." Was the Lycan's response. "I only saved a couple of legionnaires, and I doubt most of them were in perfect mental health by the time I got to them. A tragic thing, that was, but none more tragic than poor, poor Luna's disappearance. Truly, I miss her so." His voice practically oozed with sarcasm.

Mirana rolled her eyes and settled them back to the letter's contents.

_The Isle of Songs – several members of an exploratory expedition went missing as they looked for rare Idvarlan spider silk. It doesn't look good, but there's a slim chance that at least some of them are still alive, set aside for a grisly consumption later. Go and look for Princess Elyscia, if you're interested in this job. Drop my name in case someone recognized you; I'm well received there. Also, if Elyscia, or any of the royal family asks, tell them I've just recently received that silken sash they sent me. It didn't exactly fit with my uniform's existing colors, but _damn _if it didn't feel comfortable._

_"_Sounds like your trip to the Isle of Songs isn't as successful as your trip to Stonehall, Banehallow." Mirana noted.

"None of them were alive when I got to them, yes." The Lycan agreed. "The royals still gave me a reward for my efforts, but I gave half of profits back. I don't take full payments for unsuccessful jobs."

"That sounds magnanimous of you," With her own brand of sarcasm, Mirana responded. "And just who is this princess?"

"An old friend the admiral made during the Narkhali Rebellions. Much like you, she isn't a typical royal, that I can tell." Banehallow replied. "The queen's stewards said that she's unmatched with a rapier, a true markswoman with a pistol, and a terror to behold in chess. You two would get along perfectly... much like Lina and Rylai."

Mirana scoffed. "Kunkka sure has a peculiar taste in women." She went back to reading.

_Cobalt – you must be familiar enough with the Radiant to know Ymir, or 'Tusk', as he is more commonly known. Well, he went missing after going after a pack of migratory giant Icewrack Wolves at the behest of a certain barkeep. He's probably still alive, but still, he might've stumbled into a whole den of these damned animals. Look for Barkeep Maynard; he'll set you on the right path. Just don't fall for his bets and proposit__ions – he's one__ slimy bugger. Take note that he's the same barkeep I mentioned earlier._

"Yes, he stumbled across a den." Banehallow answered before Mirana could ask. Mirana nearly jumped back in surprise when she noticed him standing over her shoulder.

"It wasn't just one den, either. He came across _four_ Icewrack Wolf dens, plus a traveling pair of rogue Northern Hellbears for good measure." Banehallow continued. "To make long story short, by the end of the day, Ymir and I had brought back enough meat to Cobalt to feed the whole place for several weeks."

"You were aware that you just ate wolves, am I correct?" Mirana dared to ask.

The Lycan shrugged in inconsequence. "I'm still partly human. It doesn't make me a cannibal, if that's what you're thinking."

"Actually, that makes you part cannibal." Mirana snidely responded.

Banehallow sighed. "Unless you've decided to stop reading just to mock me, you should finish the letter. You haven't read the most important part yet."

The princess smirked, pleased at herself. "So you say, pup." She fixed her eyes back to the letter, ignoring the Lycan's irritated protests.

_That's all I could find at this time. Write me another letter if you've done all jobs, or if you don't like them. Of course, if you aren't busy, your presence in a flotilla I'm assembling would be tremendously useful if we encounter any sort of hostile force. You see, King Frederick's Royal Mages had detected unusual magical energies going haywire in the Rishi Islands, a few hundred kilometers off Wellington's coast. If this matter isn't dealt with, it's predicted that the consequences for the Trembling Isles would be severe._

_If you're interested, head to Port Darlanad, in the Shadeshore Ruins. My first mate, Feodor Volkov, should be there. Talk to him if you have intentions to come aboard. We'll be sailing inside my flagship for a moderate amount of days, and if we're fortunate, some of our fellow Heroes should be with us._

_From Grand Admiral Kunkka, of the New Claddish Armada_

Upon reading the last word, the princess folded the paper back to its original state and handed it back to Banehallow.

"Yes, I get it. You've got one of Kunkka's letters and deduced that he sent countless other letters to anyone he thought would provide assistance to him. And for reasons of your own, you decided not to attend to Shadeshore." She said, just as the Lycan pocketed Kunkka's letter. "But that still doesn't explain as to _why_ you're here in Nightsilver."

"Isn't it obvious yet? Do you remember my relationship with Luna?" The Lycan asked.

Mirana recalled that out of all the ex-Radiant Heroes, the Moon Rider was the one whom had distrusted the Lycan most. Even the Legion Commander gave Banehallow a few slivers of faith when he did remarkably good during skirmishes, but Luna was extremely harsh on Banehallow.

"I remember, of course. If it wasn't for me, she'd have already tried to get you killed."

The Lycan smiled a wolfish grin. "That's exactly the reason why I'm here. You."

"_Me?" _Mirana confusedly asked, gesturing to herself.

"Think about this scenario: after several months of hard work and dedication, I've finally managed to track down Admiral Kunkka's lost flotilla," Banehallow turned his back to Mirana and began to pace around. "Unfortunately, everyone was already dead... except for Luna."

"She would be just as likely to come with you, or attack you." Mirana dryly responded.

"Exactly. And we all know how powerful she could be with Selemene herself looking after her, correct? Even I can't take her on in a straight up fight. But what if the Moon Rider's superior, the Princess of the Moon herself, was in my company? Would she try to kill me, then?"

"Never." Mirana instantly responded. "Luna's loyalty to me is absolute. As long as I willed it, she won't bring anyone harm."

The Lycan abruptly stopped pacing and turned to look at Mirana. His earlier patronizing expression was replaced with that of concern – one that actually looked genuine. "You put too much of your faith in the Moon Rider, princess. I doubt she even shared the same sentiments to you."

"Don't think that you know anything about her, Banehallow." In an acidic tone, Mirana snapped at the Lycan. "She served Nightsilver with unflinching loyalty since her induction to the Dark Moon. On the other hand, _you _betrayed your own goddess-damned Ancient with little thought. What makes you think you're even slightly better than Luna?"

Banehallow didn't even wince at the princess' sudden outburst. "I won't pretend that I know better than Luna. In most aspects, I admit that I'm rather worse than her." In his calmest voice, he replied. "But this discussion is getting us nowhere, and only served to waste precious time."

Suddenly, the cell door busted open, startling both Mirana and Banehallow at its suddenness. Warden Velow and a whole fire-team of prison guards came flooding inside the cell, carrying torches and spears.

"You! Mongrel!" The warden screamed at the Lycan, lifting a spear to his throat. "I knew it from the very start. We should never have dragged your flea-ridden hide to prison, we should've just put you down like the dog you are!"

Banehallow merely brushed the weapon away. "You're welcome to try, meat." He growled.

Mirana made her way to the warden's side, shoving away at the guards blocking her way. "Warden, what in Mene's name is the meaning of this?!"

"Princess!" Velow said in surprise. "Thank the goddess you're alive. Did the Lycan hurt you? What did he—"

"Nobody got anybody hurt, you idiot!" Mirana cut the warden off. "Haven't I already told you to stay outside unless I called? Take your men and get out!"

Velow tried to protest again. "But, Your Highness, the Lycan isn't to be trusted! We heard shouting, andー"

"Warden, if the Lycan attacked you right now, I'd make sure that no one would interfere. For the last time, get out of here. Before I lose my patience."

The Lycan grimaced at seeing the princess at her most cruel. But he couldn't deny that he'd enjoy putting the obnoxious warden in his place.

"As you wish... princess." Sparing one last spiteful look at Banehallow, Velow beckoned his men to leave with him. After the last guard left and closed the door, the Lycan and the princess were left by their own devices again.

The two parties stood in silence, waiting for the other to start speaking, and get back to business. The maddening silence lasted for several seconds, until Banehallow chose to talk.

"Look, you've already got the gist of what my reasons are for visiting Nightsilver. I came to enlist your aid as I track down the lost Claddish flotilla."

"I thought you only needed 'darkness' as your one ally, von Ambry." The princess said.

"Unfortunately for me, the darkness likes Luna infinitely more." He derisively responded. "Besides the Moon Rider and the admiral himself, the flotilla's shipping manifest only included the Tinker and the Omniknight. I have no quarrel with those two, and I believe I can take them down if I had to. But Luna is a different story altogether. This is why I needed you, because I'd prefer to die of old age, not by wayward glaives."

"Do you know what's transpiring in Nightsilver, Lycan?" Mirana suddenly asked.

The Lycan shook his head, puzzled at the abruptness of the seemingly irrelevant query. "No, I'm afraid I don't. What is it?"

Mirana looked at Banehallow with worry etched clear within her features. Through his enhanced senses, the Lycan noted that her concern was neither for himself, nor for her own, but for another thing entirely.

"The Dark Moon relied on Luna for guidance and direction. With her gone, her warriors are in the midst of doing something drastic. I might just be too mistrustful of my own soldiers, but my instincts tell me they might be planning a coup – to take Nightsilver for themselves. Their numbers are few compared to my personal guard, but they have the support of the common folk. Things don't look good for me."

The princess sighed. "If I left with you, there's no telling what would happen to Nightsilver while I'm away. The best I could hope for is a civil war still in its infancy."

The Lycan's features sunk in disappointment. It wasn't until now that he realized that he was being self-centered. In his haste to get on with his assignment, he forgot to take account that the people around him just _might _be doing their own matters of importance.

However, it was his inherent von Ambry stubbornness that kept Banehallow from just turning about and leaving without a vital component of his endeavor. "I regret to hear that, but if you chose to stay here, without Luna, there's still a good chance that your people might start revolting either way. I'm the only one actively trying to find a way to find Luna, and all by myself, my chances of ever returning with success does not look promising."

"Then what do you suggest we do, then?" The princess asked, looking quite irritated at her situation.

The Lycan channeled all of his experience in advising royals. Like his father, he was once groomed to be the king's personal advisor. Fate apparently did not like that one bit. "I suggest that you tell your people that you'll be gone for a few months on an expedition to find Luna. Tell them that you are in possession of several solid leads as to her whereabouts, and that you'll be back with the Moon Rider in tow long before everyone noticed you were gone. With what I currently have, I think it's safe to say that most of what you'll be saying would be true."

"Hmm, yes... I suppose that's one way to solve this crisis," Mirana muttered as she contemplated her options. "Get out of Nightsilver, find and retrieve Luna, and then be back just before everyone lost their minds."

"Without my help, you'd more than likely spend years trying to look for the Moon Rider. With the leads I've got, it only comes down to a few other things before we could directly tackle this problem," Banehallow said with surety. "Without a doubt, this is the best route we have to solving both of our problems, Mirana."

For the first time in weeks, Mirana felt her problems dissipate, now that the path she'd take was clear. Relieved and directionless no more, she spoke, "Well, that settles it, then. I'll leave Nightsilver with you, and Avelina would try her best to keep my people in line while I'm away."

The Lycan nodded. "You know what to do, then. I'll stay here until you're finished with your duties. Don't take too long, and make sure your mount's ready for travel; we'll leave when dawn breaks."

"Hey, wait just a second," Mirana grabbed hold of Banehallow's arm, just before he could slink back into his darkened corner. "You're not staying here, wasting away like a diseased mutt. You're coming with me, I'll get you a proper place to stay."

Banehallow flinched in surprise and confusion. "What? I'm not—"

"Oh, don't make excuses now." The princess interrupted. "A prison cell is still a prison cell, Banehallow. I don't care how much you say you're 'comfortable in the darkness'. Come on." With surprising strength, Mirana hauled Banehallow to the cell door by his arm.

Before the Lycan could comprehend what was happening, the princess had already dragged him out of his cell.

...

**Demacia**

"Hey, Lux." Garen greeted his sister, right after he stepped out of the dungeon's threshold. "Aren't you supposed to be still in the barracks? It's still quite early in the morning for you to—"

The captain cut himself off when he had enough of the stern, unamused expression Lux was giving him.

"Listen, I just went and had a good look at the assassin. I never had a good look at her, and it never hurts to be prepared, in case she escapes." He explained. "Besides, I'm still on leave. It's not like I've got anything else better to do."

"_Nothing better_?" Lux incredulously asked, putting her hands to her hips. "You snuck out of your hospital bed early in the morning, joined up with the admiral's party and visited your potential murderer – all while soaked, unchanged bandages are still plastered all over you."

Garen shrugged. "Yes, but I've pulled through a lot worse than this, sister. You know as much as I do that I—"

"Heal a lot faster than most people – yes, I get it." The light mage interrupted her brother. "Sure you do, but why are you all so caught up in Mortred? She nearly killed you, after all. Not to mention, she left me in the middle of the street to kill… uh, what was his—"

"His name's Purist – Purist Thunderwrath." Garen made clear to Lux. "He's the one with the hammer and the red cloak."

"Yeah, Mortred bolted off all of a sudden to kill Sir Thunderwrath, as she turned out to be a professional assassin." Lux concluded. "Is it because she managed to stay on her feet during your fight?"

"She did more than that, as you might have witnessed," The captain wryly responded. "Partially, yes. Isn't that one of the reasons why I even bother waking up in the morning, Lux?"

Lux frowned. "Other than avoiding starvation and losing the good Crownguard name for being seen as a slacker."

Garen smiled. "Now do you understand? This assassin... 'Mortred', had caught my attention because she fought well. As you know from how I root out proper recruits from the rest, I have an eye for talent."

"I'm pretty sure you can't recruit an outsider into the Demacian military, brother." The light mage sarcastically informed the captain.

Garen scoffed light-heartedly. "That's not my intention. Now, where had the lieutenant gone off? I haven't received a report about what happened with the admiral while I was away."

"Don't worry, I've already compiled it for you." Lux said, somewhat unenthusiastically. "They don't call me your secretary for nothing."

…

**House Ambry/Nightsilver**

**Dawn, just outside the Nightsilver Woods**

Banehallow stared at the sun as it rose up from the earth. Soon, it'll be the most prominent feature in the sky, which the Lycan naturally detested with every fiber of his being.

"I've got Sagan," Mounted on her white tiger, Mirana loped to the Lycan's side. "So, where are we supposed to go?"

Banehallow took out a small journal from the inside of his coat. "To Lyonhall University." He answered, as he flipped the pages.

The princess was taken aback. "Lyonhall? You mean the one in Sakristan archipelago?"

"The same." Banehallow replied nonchalantly, still looking over his little book.

"You mean we're crossing several thousand miles of land and sea just to _study_? I thought you already had this figured out, Banehallow." Mirana said with derision.

The Lycan chuckled. "No. We're going to take a certain grand magus with us. Last I've heard, he works as a councilor there."

"You don't mean we're taking…"

"Yes, we are." The Lycan said in confirmation. "Whom better to take to the energy-saturated Rishi Islands than Grand Magus Rubick himself? Don't forget, studying anomalous energies is a key part to his job."

"And hobby." Mirana added. "Right then, the twitchy, spell-stealing lunatic it is. Where's your horse?"

Banehallow faked an offended look as he regarded Mirana. "Have you ever seen a wolf riding a horse?"

With that said, he promptly transformed into his cursed beast form.

In a harsh, grating voice, the Lycan growled, "Try to keep up, princess."

He bolted off, deeper into the woods. The Princess of the Moon was forced to follow close, for fear of losing sight of her surest way to find Luna.

* * *

Yeah, that's right. While our primary set of Heroes are doing things on their side of town, a secondary set of Heroes (which numbered by two for now, but should accumulate up to five people) are doing their own stuff on the other side. Just... don't expect to see them that much. And yes, I turned the Nightsilver Woods into a proper kingdom because really, what's more interesting to read: a holy site filled with moon-worshipping warriors (that's relatively stable), or a place ripe for a rebellion? Lastly, Valve hasn't given the Dota 2 world a proper name as of yet, so I gave it the name of Cyrillia, after a certain Imperial city.

HS777: Here you go, a fresh batch of Heroes. Also, look at my avatar picture. Expect him to appear soon. On an unrelated side note, I'd also like to say my thanks for mentioning my story in your own story about Juggernaut and CM. One of my readers PM'd me about it, and I was pretty shocked. In a good way, of course.

Skipper311: Tidehunter is a core part of Kunkka's lore, so expect him to appear at some point. Expect lots of name-screaming and vengeance-swearing.

heavenschoir: Thanks, mate. Sharpeye seems unlikely to appear, but I'll try to squeeze him in at some point.

BlastoiseBlue: Surprise, surprise! Rubick was just the person on my mind.

CHPrime: Nope, you didn't miss anything. The reasons are listed on this chapter.

RockOn: We're part of a rare breed of people who like both games, then.

I had a lot of trouble typing this on the iPad. You might notice some unusual quirks, typing errors and the relatively short length of this chapter because of this. My goddamn computer broke down, so any future chapters might take a while, as I'm still working on the other story I'm doing. Thanks for reading.

Oh, and if you're willing to have a round of Dota 2 on the Oceana server, my Steam name's Nikola Tesla, the Edisonslayer. I don't log in most often, though. Like I typed, my computer will have to be replaced in the near future.


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